Malaysia Open 2025: Satwik-Chirag Keep Indian Challenge Alive; Malvika Bansod Falls in Pre-Quarters

Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty kept India's challenge alive in the Malaysia Open 2025 after the star doubles pair cruised to the quarterfinals, while Malvika Bansod followed several other shuttlers from the country out of the badminton tournament on Thursday (January 9)

Satwik and Chirag defeated the Malaysian duo of N Azriyn and Tan WK by a scoreline of 21-15 21-15 in the men's doubles second round contest that lasted 43 minutes on Court 2 at the Axiata Arena in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

The seventh seed Indian pair, who finished runners up at at the Malaysia Super 1000 badminton tournament, will now take on local favourites Yew Sin Ong and Ee Yi Teo in the quarterfinals on Friday (January 10).

"It feels really good, happy to be back on tour. Good start to the year and looking forward to go as far in the tournament as possible," Chirag said after the match as the pair took to court for the first BWF World Tour event.

"We started again with our new coach, so it's all new, pretty happy. We've worked with him (new coach) before. He was the one who paired both me and Satwik up when we were young youngsters, just entering the Indian team," he added.

Malvika Bansod, on the other hand, lost to world number five third seed Han Yue of China in the women's round of 16. The unseeded Indian lost 18-21 11-21 in the women's singles second round match.

Earlier, HS Prannoy's valiant fight ended in a narrow second round loss as the top Indian singles shuttler went down 8-21, 21-15, 21-23 to China's Li Shi Feng in the men's singles second. The 32-year-old Indian pushed the tie into the decider but fell short to Li in the match that lasted an hour and 22 minutes.

There were more exits as the women's doubles pair Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand suffered a 21-15, 19-21, 19-21 defeat to China's Jia Yi Fan and Zhang Shu Xian in their round of 16 match.

In the mixed doubles, Dhruv Kapila and Tanisha Crasto, who had reached the final of the Syed Modi Super 300 International Tournament, went down 13-21, 20-22 to China's seventh seed Cheng Xing and Zhang Chi in 44 minutes.

The other Indian mixed doubles pair of Sathish Karunakaran and Aadya Variyath also went down 10-21 17-21 to the fourth seed Malaysian combine of Soon Huar Goh and Shevon Jemie Lai.