Birmingham, March 5 -- India's top men's doubles pair Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty suffered a first-round exit at the All England Open Badminton Championships after going down in straight games to Malaysia's Kang Khai Xing and Aaron Tai on Wednesday.
Competing at the Utilita Arena Birmingham, the fourth-ranked Indian duo lost 23-21, 21-12 to the world No. 33 Malaysian pair, as per Olympics.com.
Satwik-Chirag started strongly and built an 11-6 lead at the interval of the opening game before the Malaysians fought back to level the scores at 16-all. Kang and Aaron, the 2024 junior world champions, then edged ahead and, despite the Indians saving two match points, eventually sealed the game in a tie-break.
Carrying the momentum ...