Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty bow out, Kidambi progresses in Super 300

MADRID: There were disappointments for in-form doubles pairs of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty were shown the door in the opening round of the Madrid Spain Masters 2023 Super 300 tournament on Wednesday.

Rankireddy and Shetty, who had arrived in Madrid after winning the Swiss Open Super 300 last week, retired from their first-round match against Japan's Ayato Endo and Yuta Takei with possible injury or workload concerns.

There was an early exit for All England Open semi-finalists Gayatri Gopichand and Treesa Jolly as they lost to Japanese pair of Rena Miyaura-Ayako Sakuramoto 21-18, 21-16.

Meanwhile, former World No 1 Kidambi Srikanth survived a massive scare in the first round and young Akarshi Kashyap clinched the biggest win of her career.

Kidambi Srikanth played a crazy opening round as the World No. 21 had his match points saved before he saved match points against Sitthikom Thammasin of Thailand. At the mid-game interval in the decider, Srikanth once again had a comfortable lead of 11-5 but he allowed his Thai opponent to seal two match points. Eventually, Srikanth sealed the final game and the match 21-11, 25-27, 23-21 in an hour and 5 minutes.

The 5th seed will face compatriot Sai Praneeth in an all-Indian second round at the Madrid Spain Masters.

Akarshi Kashyap, World No. 42, pulled off a major upset at the Madrid Spain Masters, beating Canada's Michelle Li in 3 games. Akarshi lost the opening game but stormed back to beat the two-time Commonwealth Games medalist and World No. 15 12-21, 21-15, 21-18 in a little fewer than 60 minutes. Agencies

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