Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty Enter Malaysia Open Quarter-Final, HS Prannoy Loses

Star men's doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty cruised to the quarterfinals while HS Prannoy's valiant fight ended in a narrow second round loss at the Malaysia Super 1000 badminton tournament in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday. Satwik and Chirag defeated the Malaysian combine of N Azriyn and Tan WK 21-15 21-15 in 43 minutes in the round of 16. The seventh seed Indian pair will now take on local favourites Yew Sin Ong and Ee Yi Teo in the quarterfinals.

"It feels really good, happy to be back on tour. Good start to the year and looking forward to go as far in the tournament as possible," Chirag said after the match.

"We started again with our new coach, so it's all new, pretty happy. We've worked with him (new coach) before. He was the one who paired both me and Satwik up when we were young youngsters, just entering the Indian team," he added.

Prannoy, on the other hand, went down 8-21, 21-15, 21-23 to China's Li Shi Feng in the men's singles second.

The 32-year-old Indian, returning to action after the Paris Olympics, recovered from an opening-game reversal to stay in contention but fell short, losing in an hour and 22 minutes to seventh seed Li.

Malvika Bansod lost to world number five third seed Han Yue of China in the women's round of 16. The unseeded Indian lost 18-21 11-21.

The women's doubles pair Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand suffered a 21-15, 19-21, 19-21 defeat to China's Jia Yi Fan and Zhang Shu Xian in their round of 16 match.

In the mixed doubles, Dhruv Kapila and Tanisha Crasto, who had reached the final of the Syed Modi Super 300 International Tournament, went down 13-21, 20-22 to China's seventh seed Cheng Xing and Zhang Chi in 44 minutes.

The other Indian mixed doubles pair of Sathish Karunakaran and Aadya Variyath also went down 10-21 17-21 to the fourth seed Malaysian combine of Soon Huar Goh and Shevon Jemie Lai.

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