New Delhi, Jan. 15 -- Barring Lakshya Sen, all Indian shuttlers kept losing one after the other on Court 1, be it Kidambi Srikanth, Malvika Bansod, HS Prannoy among others. But the 2,000-odd fans that had turned up at the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium here on Thursday stuck it out, waiting for that one pair who have become the flag bearers of Indian badminton today.

Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty are unquestionably the best Indian hope going into any tournament today. They were here too at the $950,000 India Open. But the hopes of the fans as well as the third seeded pair's aspirations fell flat as they lost their second round men's doubles clash 25-27, 23-21, 21-19 in an hour and 13 minutes to Japan's Hiroki Modorikawa and Kyo...