India’s top doubles pair Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty progressed to the men’s doubles pre-quarterfinals while Lakshya Sen exited the singles event at the China Masters 2025 badminton tournament on Wednesday.
Fresh off their runners-up finish at the Hong Kong Open, world No. 7 Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty beat Malaysia’s Yap Roy King and Junaidi Arif, 20th in the men’s doubles badminton rankings, 24-22, 21-13 in 42 minutes.
Competing at the Shenzhen Arena in the People’s Republic of China, the Indian badminton players led the first game 11-9 at the interval, but were pegged back by the Malaysian duo who had two game point opportunities to take the lead.
Satwik-Chirag then rallied to save both before taking the opening game.
The second game was more of a one-sided affair with Sat-Chi racing to an 11-6 lead at the break before picking up seven straight points to close out the contest.
This was Satwik-Chirag’s second win in as many encounters against the Malaysian pair.
However, Lakshya Sen, who finished as the runners-up in men’s singles at the Hong Kong Open last week, had to bow out early.
France’s Toma Junior Popov, 13th in the men’s singles badminton rankings, beat world No. 17 Lakshya Sen 21-11, 21-10 in half an hour.
Lakshya Sen, a Paris 2024 semi-finalist, struggled to get going and trailed 11-3 and 11-4 in both mid-game breaks before failing to recover and crashing out of the BWF Super 750 tournament.
Meanwhile, mixed doubles duo Dhruv Kapila and Tanisha Crasto also exited the China Masters early after a 21-19, 21-13 defeat to second seeds Feng Yan Zhe and Huang Dongping of China.
On the opening day of the China Masters, two-time Olympic medallist PV Sindhu won her first round match and qualified for the pre-quarterfinals.