Bangkok, May 12 (IANS) India’s former World No.1 pair Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty began their campaign in the Thailand Open 2026 on a successful note, securing a hard-fought win in the BWF World Tour at the Nimibutr Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand, on Tuesday.

Top seeds Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, ranked fourth in the badminton World rankings, beat Indonesia’s unseeded pair of Putra Erwiansyah and Bagas Maulana 21-19, 23-21, 21-10 to enter the second round. The duo will next take on Malaysia’s Goonting Bryan, Jeremy, and Haikal Muhammad in the Round of 16.

Trailing 16-11 after following a sluggish start in their Round of 32 match, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, the reigning Asian Games champions, stormed back with seven straight points to seize control and edge a tight opening game.

The second game saw the momentum swing as the Indonesian pair fought back from 11-9 down to take the game into a tie-break, which they won to set up a decider.

However, the top Indian players ensured there were no further hiccups as they dominated the final game from the start and closed out the contest in an hour and four minutes.

Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty are eyeing their third Thailand Open title. They previously won the BWF World Tour Super 500 Series event twice – in 2019 and 2024.

However, there was heartbreak for India’s other men’s doubles duo, MR Arjun and Hariharan Amsakarunan, as they were knocked out in the first round, going down 21-18, 22-20 to Chinese Taipei’s Lin Yu-Chieh and Chen Zhi-Ray.

In women’s doubles, Rutaparna Panda and Swetaparna Panda, India’s sole women’s pair in the main draw, also lost their opener 21-9, 21-11 against Chih-Chun Lin and Yang Chu-Yun of Chinese Taipei.

In the men’s singles qualifying matches, Manav Choudhary gave Paris 2024 Olympic bronze medallist Lee Zii Jia of Malaysia a close fight but lost 21-19, 21-18.

Anushka Shahapurkar also exited in the women’s singles qualifiers after a 21-5, 21-7 defeat to Thailand’s Yataweemin Ketklieng.

Mohit Jaglan and Lakshita Jaglan’s mixed doubles campaign also ended in the qualifiers after a 21-11, 21-18 defeat to Tsai Fu-Cheng and Sung Yu-Hsuan of Chinese Taipei.

India have sent a sizeable 27-member contingent competing at the BWF Super 500 tournament in Bangkok this year.

Among other Indian players, young star Ayush Shetty will meet eighth seed Kodai Naraoka of Japan, while compatriot Tharun Mannepalle will beat another Japanese, Koki Watanabe, while Kidambi Srikanth will open against the eighth-ranked Loh Kean Yew.

Seventh seed Lakshya Sen, ranked 11th in the World, will start with a clash with Jai Heng Jason Leh on Tuesday.

–IANS

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