Hyderabad Open 2018: Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty enter quarter-finals; Sourabh Verma goes down fighting

The men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty justified their top billing as they entered the quarter-finals of the Hyderabad Open 2018 on Thursday. The top seeds, who are also the No. 1 men’s doubles team from India, needed 29 minutes to prevail over the Indonesian combine of Bagas Maulana and Frengky Wijaya Putra.

Rankireddy and Shetty are looking to reach their first final since the Commonwealth Games in April. They won a round at the Asian Games and are hoping to win their first title of the season at this Super 100 tournament at home.

Up next for the World No. 21 pair are the sixth seeds Tarun Kona and Lim Khim Wah, who had to work hard to earn a narrow 21-23, 24-22, 22-20 win over the Thai combine of Supak Jomkoh and Wachirawit Sothon.

The second seeded men’s doubles pair of Arjun MR and Shlok Ramchandran also made it through to the quarter-finals, courtesy of a 21-16, 21-14 win over Chang Tak Ching and Yeung Ming Nok. Fourth seeds Arun George and Sanyam Shukla ended the run of the newly-crowned Kharkiv International champions Krishna Prasad Garaga and Dhruv Kapila with a 21-16, 21-18 win.

In singles, Pratul Joshi prevented a quarter-final meeting between brothers after he edged the fifth seed Sourabh Verma 14-21, 21-13, 21-19 in 59 minutes. Joshi will take on the top seed Sameer Verma, who earlier made a smooth progress into the last-eight.

RMV Gurusaidutt is the third Indian to reach the quarters in men’s singles and he now meets Malaysia’s Lim Chi Wing.

In women’s singles, fifth seed Sri Krishna Priya Kudaravalli and Rasika Raje are the only two Indians to make it to the quarter-finals. A day after upsetting the second seed Lyanny Alessandra Mainaky, Raje emerged a 21-19, 21-16 winner over Cheung Ying Mei.

In women’s doubles, second seeds Meghana Jakkampudi and Poorvisha S Ram were knocked out 13-21, 13-21 by Indonesians Winny Oktavina Kandow and Rosyita Eka Putri Sari.

In mixed doubles, Arjun MR-Maneesha K and S Sunjith-Sruthi KP joined the top seeds Pranaav Jerry Chopra and N Sikki Reddy in the quarter-finals.