Top seeds Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty overcame a fierce challenge to advance in the men’s doubles competition at the Thailand Open Super 500 tournament in Bangkok. The world No. 4 Indian pair defeated Indonesia’s Muh Putra Erwiansyah and Bagas Maulana 19-21, 23-21, 21-10 in a gripping 64-minute match on Tuesday.
Trailing 11-16 in the second game, the Indian duo mounted a stunning comeback by winning seven consecutive points to seize control. Though the Indonesians leveled at 18-18, Satwik and Chirag held their nerve to force a decider. The third game saw the Indians dominate, racing to an 11-5 lead at the interval and cruising to victory.
The Indian pair will next face Malaysia’s Bryan Jeremy Goonting and Muhammad Haikal. Earlier, Malaysia’s Olympic bronze medallist Lee Zii Jia, returning from injury, defeated India’s Manav Choudhary 21-19, 21-18 in qualifying. In mixed doubles qualifying, India’s M. Jaglan and L. Jaglan fell to Chinese Taipei’s Tsai Fu Cheng and Sung Yu Hsuan 11-21, 18-21, while in women’s singles, Thailand’s Y. Ketklieng beat India’s A. Shahapurkar 21-5, 21-7.
