Indian men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty advanced to the quarter-finals of the Korea Open 2023 badminton tournament on Thursday.
Four other Indian entries playing in the pre-quarterfinals of the BWF Super 500 event lost their respective matches, ending India’s campaign in the men’s singles, and the women’s and mixed doubles events.
Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, the third seeds and world No. 3, defeated the 16th-ranked duo of He Jiting and Zhou Haodong of the Republic of China 21-17, 21-15 in 43 minutes.
The Indian badminton pair will play fifth seeds Takuro Hoki and Yugo Kobayashi of Japan in the quarter-finals on Friday.
Earlier in the men’s singles, 31-year-old HS Prannoy, 10th in the badminton rankings and seeded fifth at the Korea Open, was stunned 21-15, 19-21, 21-18 by world No. 18 Lee Cheuk Yiu of Hong Kong in an hour and six minutes.
Two-time Olympic medallist PV Sindhu, meanwhile, was ousted in the opening round after the Indian went down to Chinese Taipei’s Pai Yu Po on Wednesday.
Results at the Korea Open count towards players’ qualifying rankings for the Paris 2024 Olympics. The qualification window for badminton started on May 1 this year.
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