INDONESIA MASTERS
JAKARTA, Jan 21: India’s Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty stormed into the second round of the USD 475,000 Indonesia Masters super 500 badminton with a clinical straight-game win against Chinese taipei’s Chen Zhi Ray and Lin Yu Chieh here on Tuesday.
The duo,outwitted Chen and Lin, ranked 38th in the world, 21-16 21-15 in their opening match.
World No. 19 combination of Tanisha Crasto and Ashwini Ponnappa stamped their authority over Thai pair of Jongsathapornparn and Suwachai 21-6 21-14 in the women’s doubles opening round.
Satwik and Chirag, will face the winner of the match between Indonesia’s Raymond Inra and Patra Harapan Rindorindo and Thailand’s Kittinupong Kedren and Dechapol Puavaranukroh.
Ashwini and Tanisha, who won the Guwahati Masters super 100 title, last month will take on Malaysia’s Pei Kee Go and Mei Xing Teoh next.
Satwik and Chirag didn’t have the desired start as the Taiwanese pair moved to a 8-4 lead early on but the Indians drew parity with four straight points. Thereafter, the two pairs were locked at 14-14 before Satwik and Chirag took a slender 17-16 lead.They then reeled off the required four points to seal the opening game.Having had the measure of their opponents, Satwik and Chirag played with more clarity and it showed as they jumped to 12-5 after the change of sides. The Taiwanese were then left to do the catching-up job as the Indian pair prevailed comfortably. (PTI)