Why Chirag Shetty, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy failed to qualify despite winning two out of three games

Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy might have won the battle but they lost the war as they failed to qualify for the knock-out despite winning the match on Tuesday.

It was close yet so far for Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj as they missed the quarter-final berth by a whisker at the Tokyo Olympics.

The World No. 10 pair of Chirag and Satwik defeated Ben Lane and Sean Vendy of Great Britain 21-17, 21-19 to register their second win in Group A.

Despite two wins, the Indians could not make it to the next round. Three teams in the "Group of Death" ended up with two wins each.

The Indians missed out due to game-difference. Top seeds Indonesians Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo and Marcus Fernaldi Gideon and Chinese Taipei’s Lee Yang and Wang Chi-Lin also won two matches each but with a better game-difference.

Chirag and Satwiksairaj bow out due to just one-game margin

The Indians, who upset the World No. 3 pair in their opening match on Saturday in three games, won four games and lost three in the league stages (+1).

World No. 1 Indonesian pair claimed five games and conceded just a couple (+3), while World No. 3 Chinese Taipei duo pocketed five games and lost three (+2).

Chirag and Satwik crashed out of the competition owing to the difference of just one game. Only top teams from each of the four groups qualify for the quarter-finals.

Had they stretched the Indonesians to three games on Monday, the equation would have come down to who won the maximum number of points.

However, it did not get to that stage as the Indians lost in straight games against the mighty Indonesians.

In the third and last league match, Chinese Taipei’s Yang and Chi-Lin upset "minions" Sanjaya Sukamuljo and Fernaldi Gideon in three games.

The Chinese Taipei pair won 21-18, 15-21, 21-17 which made the equation unfavorable to the Indians.

In fact, after three previous defeats, this was the Chinese Taipei pair's first career win against the Indonesians.

In all three encounters before Tuesday’s clash, the Indonesians had never conceded a single game against Yang and Chi-Lin.

However, the Chinese Taipei combination turned the tables on their Indonesian opponents, leaving Chirag and Satwik heart-broken.