China Masters 2023: Satwik-Chirag, Prannoy Breeze Into Quarterfinals

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Shenzhen (China), November 23: India's Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty pair and HS Prannoy reached the quarterfinals of the China Masters 2023 after straight games wins in their respective matches on Thursday (November 23).

Top seeds Satwik-Chirag defeated Japanese pair Akira Koga and Taichi Saito in the men's doubles second round match by a scoreline of 21-15, 21-16 in 46 minutes on court 2 at the Shenzhen Bay Gymnasium in Shenzhen, China.

The Asian Games 2023 champions Rankireddy and Shetty will next face either sixth seeds Anders Rasmussen and Kim Astrup of Denmark or Leo Rolly Carnando and Daniel Mathin of Indonesia in the last eight on Friday (November 24).

Prannoy, on the other hand, defeated Magnus Johanessen of Denmark in the men's singles second round match by a scoreline of 21-12, 21-18 in 40 minutes on court 3.

Asian Games bronze medal winner, who made his return from an injury lay-off last week, will next face either third seed Kodai Naraoka of Japan or Denmark's Anders Antonsen in the last eight match on Friday (November 24).

Satwik-Chirag and Prannoy kept India's challenge alive in the China Masters 2023 after several of their compatriots crashed out in the first round on the opening two days of the BWF Super 750 tournament.

Lakshya Sen, Kidambi Srikanth, Priyanshu Rajawat, Aakarshi Kashyap as well as doubles pair Rutaparna Panda and Swetaparna Panda all crashed out in the opening round of their respective events.

Earlier on Wednesday (November 22), Sen and Rajawat suffered straight games loss to China's Shi Yu Qi and Japan's Kenta Nishimoto repectively before Srikanth went down fighting in three games to fourth seed Kunlavut Vitidsarn of Thailand.

Later, women's doubles pair of Swetaparna and Rutaparna suffered a straight games loss to China's Zhang Shu Xian & Zheng Yu by a scoreline of 15-21, 9-21 to bow out in the opening round.

On Tuesday (November 21), the lone women's singles player from the country competing at the China Masters, Kashyap crashed out in the first round following straight games loss to Zhang Yi Man by a scoreline of 12-21, 14-21.