Satwik-Chirag start off with slow three-setter win
Indian duo defeats Bagas Maulana and Muh Putra Erwiansyah 21-19, 21-23, 21-20 in Thailand Open Round 1
Indian men's doubles pair Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty. (Express photo by Abhinav Saha) Top seeds Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty got off to a slow start at the Thailand Open Super 500 at Patumwan, defeating Bagas Maulana and Muh Putra Erwiansyah 21-19, 21-23, 21-20 in 64 minutes on Tuesday.
Maulana, a former All England champion from Indonesia who has kicked off a new temporary partnership with Erwiansyah, has always been a formidable opponent. The Indians fell 11-16 behind in the opener, before going off on a 7-point rally to take the opening game.
There was another dawdle up to 15-16 in the second, before it became 18-all and went into a decider.
In the final game, the Indonesians were nowhere in the frame after trailing 2-8, as the Indians coolly sauntered to a win.
Wednesday will see a bunch of Indians in action in the singles, with Unnati Hooda starting out against Pornpawee Chochuwong, while PV Sindhu meets Tung Ciou Tong of Taipei. In men’s singles, Tharun Mannepalli plays Koki Watanabe while Kidambi Srikanth takes on Loh Kean Yew.
Ayush Shetty begins his campaign against sixth seed Kodai Naraoka, while Lakshya Sen plays Jia Heh Jason Teh. In another interesting clash, Anmol Kharb gets to cross swords with Chen Yufei. Devika Sihag takes on Natsuki Nidaira, and Tanvi Sharma is up against another Japanese in Hina Akechi. Isharani Baruah starts against Thalitha Ramdani, while Malvika Bansod needs to get past Wen Yu Zhang.
Dhruv Kapila and Tanisha Crasto have a tough mixed doubles opener against Danes Mathias Christiansen and Alexandra Boje.
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