All England Championships: Satwik-Chirag make early exit

Unlike on the opening day when Lakshya Sen took out the world No. 1, the top Indian doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty failed to make an impression and exited early at the All England championships in Birmingham on Wednesday.The former world No.1 Indian duo lost to Araon Tai and Khang Khai Xing 23-21, 21-12. This is the biggest victory for the 19-year-old Malaysian left-right combination, the 2024 world junior champion pair, on the senior circuit.

The experienced Indians were cruising at 11-6 in the first game before the teens halted their surge with a barrage of smashes and won 12 of the next 17 points to lead 18-16. At 17-18, Chirag made a service error but earned the next point with a brilliant service return.

At 18-19, Xing secured the first game point with a full-blooded smash.The Indians saved four game points only to succumb. At 21-21, after a series of exchanges, Satwik failed to retrieve a hard push from Tai. At 22-21, Xing surprised the Indians with an accurate smash to clinch the game. The Indians were in the second game only till 6-6 as AronKang won five of the next six points to lead 11-7 at the break.Finding placements with ease, the Malaysians were at their aggressive best and most of the smashes kissed the lines.

The hard-hitting Indians were beaten at their own game by the new entrants, who are playing their first Super-1000 tournament. They had won the Syed Modi and Guwahati Masters Super-100 titles last year.Later in day Ayush Shetty faces Alwi Farhan of Indonesia and the mixed doubles pair of Rohan Kapoor-Ruthivka Shivani face French fifth seeds Thom Gicquel and Delphine Delrue.On Tuesday night, two-time semifinalists Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand suffered a 15-21, 21-15, 18-21 loss to Sayaka Hirota and Ayako Sakuramoto of Japan.