Satwinsairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty lose to Indonesian pair

TOKYO: India's Satwinsairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty went down after putting up a fight against world No.1 Marcus Fernaldi Gideon and Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo of Indonesia in their second Group A match in the men's doubles badminton competition at the Tokyo Olympics on Monday.

Rankireddy/Shetty, who had won their first match in the group against world No. 3 pair of Yang Lee and Chi-Lin Wang of Chinese Taipei, went down 21-13, 21-12 against the Indonesian pair, in just 31 minutes.

Gideon and Sukamuljo, the best men's doubles pair on the circuit for the last couple of years, were too strong for the Indians and did not allow them any chance.

The Indonesians are the favourite for the title and are expected to top their Group. They kept a steady scoring rate.

Rankireddy/Shetty now have one more match against British pair Ben Lane and Sean Vendy and if they win, they will qualify for the knockout stages. Two out of the four teams from the four-team group will qualify for the next stage.

Currently, the Indian pair is second in the group with three points from two matches, the same as Lee and Wang from Chinese Taipei. The British pair has lost both its matches. IANS

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