Malaysia Open: Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty Enters Men's Doubles Quarterfinals, Kidambi Srikanth Loses

India's Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty continued their impressive run to advance to the men's doubles quarterfinals but Kidambi Srikanth failed to cross the second round at Malaysia Open Super 1000 badminton tournament in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday. World No. 2 Satwik and Chirag, who had a stellar run in 2023 with six titles, beat France's world No. 36 Lucas Corvee and Ronan Labar 21-11 21-18 to set up a clash with China's world No. 32 He Ji Ting and Ren Xiang Yu. Srikanth, however, failed to rein in his errors and went down 13-21 17-21 to Hong Kong's Ng Ka Long Angus in the second round.

Satwik and Chirag, the Asian Games gold medallists, dished out an aggressive game to gallop to 11-2 lead at the break in the opening game. A seven-point burst after resumption gave the French pair hope as they made it 12-14.

But the Indian combination soon found their bearing to run away with the opening game after gathering the remaining seven points on the trot.

The Indians, however, wouldn't have been prepared for what came next as Corvee and Labar came out blazing on all cylinders to take an 11-4 cushion in the interval.

From 4-11, Satwik and Chirag, however, made it 16-16 with Chirag and Satwik once again scripting a remarkable recovery.

Once the French went long, the Indians had the advantage. Labar pounced on a weak return to keep themselves in the hunt. A deception from Chirag, followed by a flat exchange, gave India three match points. They squandered one before Labar served into the net.

Earlier, a series of unforced errors and bad line judgements put Srikanth, world ranked 24, on the back foot as world No. 20 Ka Long looked in fine fettle during the 38-minute men's singles match.

Srikanth had a promising start as he