Satwik-Chirag to return at China Masters

New Delhi: India’s finest men’s badminton doubles pair Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty will return to action after a gap of three-and-a-half months, at this week’s $1.15 million China Masters at Shenzhen.

The Hangzhou Asian Games champions have not played since their quarterfinal loss in the Paris Olympics. the Shenzen Arena for the Super 750 tournament.

The former world No.1 pairing took a break after the disappointment at the Olympics with their comeback further delayed due to Rankireddy’s shoulder injury. They missed many top tier tournaments and their world ranking dropped to No.7 as a result. The pair will also be without a dedicated coach as Mathias Boe had left after the Olympics.

Seeded sixth, Rankireddy and Shetty will face world No.10 Lee Jhe-huei and Yang Po-hsuan of Chinese Taipei in the opening round of the Super 750 tournament at the Shenzen Arena. The Indians have a perfect 3-0 record against the Taipei pair.

Last year, Rankireddy and Shetty were seeded No.1 at the China Masters where they lost to Wei Keng-liang and Chang Wang in the final. The Chinese pair were the silver medallists at Paris.

In men’s singles, Lakshya Sen will open his campaign against Olympic bronze medallist and seventh seed Lee Zii Jia in a rematch of the bronze playoff in Paris where the Malaysian came out on top in three games. The Almora resident has a 4-2 head-to-head record against Lee.

Priyanshu Rajawat found himself lucky after being promoted from the reserve list following withdrawals and will face Chico Aura Dwi Wardoyo. He has not beaten the Indonesian in two meetings.

In women’s singles, PV Sindhu, Aakarshi Kashyap, Malvika Bansod and Anupama Upadhyaya carry Indian hopes. Former world champion Sindhu will open against old foe Busanan Ongbamrungphan of Thailand, against whom the Indian has an 18-1 record.

Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand will face Chinese Taipei’s Hu Ling Fang and Jheng Yu Chieh in the women’s doubles opener while the husband-wife pairing of N Sikki Reddy and B Sumeeth Reddy are India’s lone entry in mixed doubles.