Bangkok: India’s Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty qualified for the men’s doubles semifinals but B. Sai Praneeth crashed out of the men’s singles event at the Thailand Open here on Friday.
While Rankireddy and Shetty registered a hard-fought 21-17, 17-21, 21-19 win over qualifiers Choi Solgyu and Seo Seung Jae of Korea, Sai Praneeth suffered a straight games defeat against seventh seed Kenta Tsuneyama of Japan.
After posing some challenge in the first game, Sai Praneeth, who reached the semifinals of last week’s Japan Open, surrendered 18-21, 12-21 in the men’s singles quarterfinals.
With Sai Praneeth’s exit, Indian challenge has ended in the men’s singles event.
However, it was curtains for Rankireddy in the quarterfinals of mixed doubles event as he and Ashwini Ponnappa lost 13-21, 15-21 to third seeds Yuta Watanabe and Arisa Higashino of Japan.
