All England Open: World number 1 Satwik/Chirag stunned in pre-quarters

Indian doubles pair Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty were defeated by Muhammad Shohibul Fikri and Bagas Maulana of Indonesia in straight games in the pre-quarterfinals of the All England Badminton Championships on Thursday.

Ranked number in the world, Satwik/Chirag lost 16-21,15-21 against the Indonesian pair, who won the title in 2022. The Indian pair couldn't continue their title-winning run at the French Open last week.

Satwik/Chirag started well in the first game and they were tied at 6-6 before the Indonesian pair raced to a big lead of 13-6 and eventually won the first game.

In the second game, the Indonesian pair came out with an intent and defeated the Indian pair 21-15 increasing their wait for an All England Championships title.

Tanisha Crasto and Ashwini Ponnappa also exited in the women's doubles round of 16, after a 21-11 11-21 11-21 defeat against Zhang Shu Xian and Zheng Yu of China.

Later today, India's Lakshya Sen will face Malaysia's Lee Zii Jia, a 2021 champion here, in the men's singles quarterfinals.

Earlier, Sen had recorded a stunning three-game win over world No. 3 Anders Antonsen to progress to the quarterfinals. Sen won 24-22 11-21 21-14.

However, it was curtains for double Olympic medallist PV Sindhu as she slipped to a 19-21 11-21 loss to her nemesis and world No. 1 An Se Young of South Korea.