Indian Badminton Duo Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty Knocked Out of Second Round in Japan Open

The Indian badminton contingent continued to suffer more defeats at the Japan Open Super 750 tournament, as the star doubles duo of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, fondly known as the Sat-Chi duo by fans, were eliminated in the second round of the competition itself.

The duo lost to the Chinese pair of Liang Wei Kang and Wang Chang, losing 24-22, 21-14 in straight games to deal a further blow to India's hopes of picking up a medal in the tournament. 

Their elimination comes after star Indian singles player PV Sindhu also got knocked out in the first round, in itself a major setback for a player who has been suffering an alarming slump of form. 

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How Sat-Chi Got Eliminated From Japan Open

The first game which was contested by the Indian and Chinese pairs was extremely hard fought, as evidenced by the fact that it went into sudden death. 

The game thus went long and the Chinese duo needed to get to 24 points instead of the usual 21 to get the game win, but it did their confidence a world of good. 

They were able to wrap up the second game in a much more comprehensive fashion, thus sparing themselves the trouble of playing a third game and ending the match after the first two. 

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Sindhu's Slump Also Raises Concerns

That their elimination came after Sindhu got knocked out also points to the state of Indian badminton as a whole right now. 

Sindhu was up against South Korea's Sim Yu Jin but was outclassed and suffered a straight games defeat, losing 15-21, 14-21 and ending her challenge at the Super 750 tournament. 

Her display in the Japan Open will do very little to inspire any confidence either - she was defeated in just over 30 minutes and had a time to forget on the court, where she made a number of unforced errors and did not look like competing barring a brief spell in the second game. 

But the bigger concern is that the Sat-Chi duo and Sindhu were until recently always competing for medals - and now they find themselves getting eliminated early in tournaments.