Satwik-Chirag pair exits All England Championships after a straight game defeat

World No. 1 Indian pair Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty bowed out in the men's doubles pre-quarterfinals of the All England Badminton Championships after a straight game defeat against Muhammad Shohibul Fikri and Bagas Maulana of Indonesia here.

Satwik and Chirag on Thursday night lost 16-21 15-21 against the Indonesians, who were champions here in 2022. The top seeded Indian shuttlers, who had won the French Open last week, could not sustain the pressure on their rivals, the third seeds, and went down in a little over an hour.

Tanisha Crasto and Ashwini Ponnappa also exited in the women's doubles round of 16, after a 21-11 11-21 11-21 defeat against Zhang Shu Xian and Zheng Yu of China.

Later today, India's Lakshya Sen will face Malaysia's Lee Zii Jia, a 2021 champion here, in the men's singles quarterfinals.

Earlier, Sen had recorded a stunning three-game win over world No. 3 Anders Antonsen to progress to the quarterfinals. Sen won 24-22 11-21 21-14.

However, it was curtains for double Olympic medallist PV Sindhu as she slipped to a 19-21 11-21 loss to her nemesis and world No. 1 An Se Young of South Korea.