Malaysia Open 2024: Satwik-Chirag progress to Round of 16; Lakshya Sen, HS Prannoy crash out

Both Prannoy and Sen lost in straight games at Malaysia Open 2024.

Indian doubles pair Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty advanced to the round of 16 of the Malaysia Open 2024 but it was curtains for HS Prannoy and Lakshya Sen who crashed out after straight games losses. For 22-year-old Sen, it was a sixth consecutive first round defeat in the BWF World Tour.

Satwik-Chirag stormed into the round of 16 of the Malaysia Open 2024. The duo displayed a dominant performance against Indonesia’s Muhammad Shohibul Fikri and Bagas Maulana to end the match with a scoreline of 21-18 and 21-19.

The duo had been in scintillating form since last year that saw them bag Asian Games gold. The duo won the Asian Games gold in Hangzhou, a Super 1000 crown in Indonesia, the Korea Open Super 500 and the Swiss Open super 300 last year before grabbing a career-best ranking of World No.1, albeit for a brief time. Now, the Indian men’s doubles pair began the new season on a winning note.

However, there were bad news for the Asian Games bronze medalist HS Prannoy who had to bite the dust against Denmark’s Anders Antonsen. Antonsen who is a player ranked one spot below Prannoy defeated the latter with a scoreline of 14-21, 11-21 in 43 minutes.

Prannoy will look to be a lead contender for gold at the Paris Olympics 2024. However, in the season opener, he has looked rusty which can raise doubts in the mind of the 31-year-old for his perhaps last Olympic appearance.

On the other hand, there were also disappointing news for the young shuttler Lakshya Sen who crashed out against the skillful Chinese shuttler Weng Hongyang. Lakshya and Weng were on a neck-to-neck encounter so far against Weng which stood at 5-piece before entering the match today.

However, the young Chinese started the game with a dominant intent to open a 7-5 lead in the first set itself. Mid-game in the first set, Weng went with a 11-7 lead. However, Lakshya made a miraculous five-point comeback to lessen the gap to 16-14. However, Weng outfoxed Lakshya to take the first set 21-15.

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In the second set, it was a more close affair as the score tied at 7-7. However, Weng again had the upper hand as he went into the mid-game interval with 11-7 lead. After that there was again a 2 point difference as Lakshya made a stunning recovery to take the score 18-16.

But, the Chinese had the last laugh as he was able to seal the game at 21-16. Weng will now face his fellow countryman Li Shifeng. While, Satwik and Chirag face France’s Ronan Labar and Lucas Corvée. Indian veteran Kidambi Srikanth will also lock horns with Angus K.L. Ng of Hong Kong in the round of 16.

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