India's Satwiksiraj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty went on to the second round of the Herinubbel competition on the All England Championships, which register a straight game victory over Denmark's Daniel Lundgaard and Mads Vestergaart. Satwik, together with his double partner Chirag, returned to the court after the loss of his father last month and set up an impressive display and achieved a victory of 21-17, 21-15 in just 40 minutes late. Just after sealing the victory, satwik raised his finger in heaven, his gaze confirmed ash and perhaps reaching for his father, looking for him in the outside.
“It's difficult, but that's how life is,” said Satwik. “It was not expected.” The 24-year-old from Amalapuram expressed his gratitude to his partner for the fact that he was there during this challenging time.
“During difficult times he (Shetty) came to my hometown, we practiced a bit there, and I am grateful for that. He was there during my injury; his parents came down and our coach also came to my hometown.
“My father always wanted to bring them there.” Chirag reflects on the sudden turn of events in the past two weeks: “Satwik credit, what he has experienced and how he is back and decided to play here, nobody could do that.
“A feather for him, he is a will -powerful person to get out, and keep everything aside, because that is what his father would have wanted to do. I am proud of being his partner.” The duo, 7th sown, then takes China's Hao Nan Xie and Wei Han Zeng on Thursday in the round of 16.
In other matches in which Indian players are involved, Lakshya Sen will be confronted with Jonatan Christie in Indonesia, while Malvika Bansod takes on the third seed of Akane Yamaguchi, a double world champion.
Malvika had previously stunned Yeo Jia Min from Singapore in her debut match at the prestigious tournament.
World No. 9 Treesa Jolly and Gayatri GopiCand, who reached back-to-back semi-finals during this event, will meet the eighth Korean Korean pair Jeong Kim and Hee Yong Kong.
Rohan Kapoor and Ruthvika Shivani Gadde will be on the fifth Chinese duo of Yan Zhe Feng and Ya Xin Wei.
(Except for the headline, this story was not edited by DailyExpertNews staff and has been published from a syndicated feed.)
Topics mentioned in this article