Jakarta, June 6 (IANS) The former champions Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty bowed out of the Indonesia Open, a BWF Super 1000 badminton tournament, with a straight game loss in the men’s doubles quarterfinal to Malaysian seventh seeds Man Wei Chong and Kai Wun Tee here on Friday.

Satwik-Chirag, who had reached the semifinals of the Singapore Open Super 750 last week, suffered a 19-21, 16-21 loss at the hands of World No. 7 Chong and Tee at the Istora Senayan. This was the Malaysian’s first win against Satwik-Chirag in five meetings.

The World No. 22 pair were the last Indian contention at the Super 1000 tournament in Jakarta after two-time Olympic medallist PV Sindhu and women’s doubles pair of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand crashed out in the second round.

On Thursday, Satwik-Chirag came from behind to advance to the quarterfinals of the Super 1000 tournament. The 2023 champions Satwik-Chirag had registered a hard-fought 16-21, 21-18, 22-20 win over world number 16 Danish pair of Rasmus Kjaer and Frederik Sogaard in a 68-minute second-round clash.

Sindhu’s campaign came to an end after a narrow 22-20, 10-21, 18-21 loss to Thailand’s world No. 8 Pornpawee Chochuwong in a gruelling 78-minute match on Thursday. She staged a strong comeback to take the opening game after being 10-16 down.

But, Chochuwong bounced back with a dominant second game and despite Sindhu leading 15-11 in the decider, the Thai shuttler’s consistency and Sindhu’s untimely unforced errors saw the Indian falter at the finish line.

Earlier, Lakshya Sen, returning from a back injury, fell short despite a spirited effort against world No. 2 Shi Yu Qi in the opening round. The 2021 World Championships bronze medallist stretched Shi to three games, eventually losing 11-21, 22-20, 15-21 in a match that lasted 65 minutes.

Veteran shuttler HS Prannoy too suffered a first-round exit, going down 17-21, 18-21 to Indonesia’s emerging star Alwi Farhan in a tight battle. Malvika Bansod was forced to retire despite leading her match after she slipped on the court and injured her knee. Anupama Upadhyaya and Rakshitha Ramraj also bowed out, losing in straight games to Kim Ga Eun and Supanida Katethong, respectively, in the first round.

–IANS

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