IMAGE: The top-seeded Indian pair lost in straight games against Muhammad Shohibul Fikri and Bagas Maulana of Indonesia in the Round of 16 match on Thursday. Photograph: Andrew Boyers/Reuters
World No. 1 Indian pair Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty bowed out in the men’s doubles pre-quarterfinals of the All England Badminton Championships after a straight-game defeat against Muhammad Shohibul Fikri and Bagas Maulana of Indonesia in Birmingham
Satwik and Chirag on Thursday night lost 16-21, 15-21 against the former champions — the Indonesians had won the title in 2022.
The top-seeded Indian shuttlers, who had won the French Open last week, could not sustain the pressure on their rivals, the third seeds, and went down in a little over an hour.
“Definitely there was some tiredness, we couldn’t put them under pressure, they played really a good game and had a lot of net chords. They were defending well, so kudos to them,” Chirag said after the match.
“You can’t be playing finals every week but we tried to push them as much as possible. But playing back-to-back tournaments does take a toll on the body, but nothing to take away from them.”
It was their first early exit since November last year when they had lost in the opening round at Japan Masters.
Since then, the Indian duo has played four finals, before finally winning the title in Paris.
The Indian pair had beaten the Indonesian world No. 9 four times before this match but Satwik said the opponents made few wrong choices in their strokes on Thursday which put paid to their hopes.
“They had nothing to lose, we made too many wrong choices, we couldn’t keep it simple, we got a lot of chances, I could sense they were enjoying. We couldn’t catch up, they also played some amazing strokes, which I didn’t expect,” he said.
The Indian pair will next look to defend their title at the Asia Championships from April 9-14.
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 on Thursday.
In men’s singles, 2022 runner-up Lakshya Sen will face Malaysia’s Lee Zii Jia, a 2021 champion here, in the quarter-finals later on Friday.
