Tokyo 2020: Indian pair Chirag, Satwik lose to World No.1 Indonesian pair in group play stage

Tokyo, July 26: India's Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy lost to world number one Indonesian duo of Marcus Gideon and Kevin Sukamuljo in the men's doubles Group A Play Stage of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics on Monday (July 26).

The Indonesian pair defeated Chirag and Satwik 21-13, 21-12 in the Group A Play Stage match at the Musashino Forest Plaza Court 1 in the ongoing Tokyo Olympics.

The world number one men's doubles pair took the first game quite easily in 17 minutes and in the second game also, Chirag and Satwik had no answer as they ended up losing the match, that lasted for 32 minutes, in straight games.

The defeat on Monday (July 26) was the Indian pair's second match of the Group A Play Stage. On Saturday (July 24), Chirag and Satwik had defeated World no. 3 Chinese pair of L Yang and W CHi.

The Indian pair will next play Great Britain pair of Ben Lane and Sean Vendy in their third and final Group Play match on Tuesday (July 27).

Earlier on Sunday (July 25), PV Sindhu started her Tokyo Olympics campaign on a good note as she won her opening women's singles Group J match at the Musashino Forest Plaza Court 2.

Sindhu defeated Israel's Ksenia Polikarpova 21-7, 21-10 in the Group J match, which lasted for just 28 minutes.

In the men's singles event, B Sai Praneeth suffered a demoralising straight-game defeat against lower-ranked Misha Zilberman from Israel in Group D Play Stage, making a disappointing start to his maiden Olympic campaign on Saturday (July 24).

Praneeth, a 2019 World Championship bronze medallist and now ranked 15th, was too erratic as he lost 17-21 15-21 to world number 47 Zilberman in a 41-minute match. The 13th seeded Indian will next face world number 29 Mark Caljouw of the Netherlands.