Star Indian men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Reddy and Chirag Shetty assured themselves of a maiden medal at the World Championships on Friday after stunning world number 2 Takuro Hoki and Yugo Kobayashi of Japan in the quarterfinals.
The world number 7 Indian combination, which had claimed the Commonwealth Games gold medal earlier this month, dished out a gritty performance to outwit the local favourites and defending champions 24-22, 15-21, 21-14 in an hour and 15 minutes to claim India first-ever men’s doubles medal at the prestigious tournament.
It was India’s second World Championships medal in doubles with Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa claiming the first way back in 2011 in the women’s doubles.
“We don’t want to stop here. We want to go further. But this is what we were aiming for. We wanted to keep our body fit and do well,” Satwik told reporters after the match.
Earlier, MR Arjun and Dhruv Kapila’s fine run came to an end after the Indian pair lost to three-time gold medallists Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan in their men’s doubles quarterfinals.
The unseeded Indian combination, who had some sensational wins this week, lost 8-21, 14-21 to the third-seeded Indonesian pair, which is undefeated at the Worlds, in less than 30 minutes, drawing curtains to its campaign.
The Indians had earlier defeated eighth seeds Kim Astrup and Anders Skaarup Rasmussen of Denmark in the second round.
Prannoy falls in quarterfinals
India’s HS Prannoy was beaten by China’s Zhao Jun Peng in the quarterfinals of the men’s singles competition at the BWF World Championships on Friday.
The world no. 18 who had beaten his compatriot Lakshya Sen in a gruelling round of 16 match on Thursday, fell to the 23-rd ranked Zhao 21-19, 6-21, 18-21.
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