Malaysia Open 2024: Satwik-Chirag, Ponnappa-Crasto Enter Quarter-Finals; Srikanth Bows Out

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Indian doubles teams Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty and Ashwini Ponnappa-Tanisha Crasto progressed to the quarter-finals of the Malaysia Open 2024 following contrasting wins in their respective second round matches on Thursday (January 11).

World number 2 pair Satwik-Chirag registered a straight games 21-11, 21-18 win over French pair Lucas Corvee and Ronan Labar in the men's doubles pre quarterfinal that lasted 39 minutes on Court 2 at the Axiata Arena in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Ponnappa-Crasto pair, on the other hand, stunned former world number 1 Japanese duo Mayu Matsumoto and Wakana Nagahara by a scoreline of 21-19, 13-21, 21-15 in the women's doubles second round match that lasted an hour and 2 minutes on court 3.

Rankireddy and Shetty, who won the first game with ease, were trailing 4-11 at the interval before they staged a comeback to beat French duo 21-18 in the second game to seal a last 8 meeting with China's He Ji Ting and Ren Xiang Yu.

Ponnapa and Crasto, who are on the rise as a pair, clinched the closely contest first game 21-19 before dropping the second game to the Japanese duo. The Indian pair, however, fought back to win the final game to seal a quarter-final meeting with another Japanese pair in Rin Iwanaga and Kie Nakawashi.

The Malaysia Open Super 1000 tournament's quarter-final round is set to be held on Friday (January 12) with the first session set to start at 6:30 AM IST and the second at 12:30 PM IST. Both the Indian pairs will be in action on Friday (January 12).

While the doubles teams kept Indian challenge alive in Kuala Lumpur, the lone singles shuttler in second round, Kidambi Srikanth suffered a straight games loss to bow out of the Malaysia Open 2024 on Thursday (January 11).

Former world number 1 Srikanth lost to Hong Kong's NG Ka Long Angus by a scoreline of 13-21, 17-21 in the men's singles second round match that lasted 38 minutes on court 2.

Earlier on the opening two days, HS Prannoy, Lakshya Sen and Akarshi Kashyap made an early exit, losing their respective singles matches in the first round, while Rutaparna Panda-Swetaparna Panda and Dhruv Kapila-MR Arjun pair also bowed out in the opener.