Chirag-Satwiksairaj assure doubles medal after 52 years!

Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty assured India of a men's doubles medal at the Badminton Asia Championships after 52 years as they outclassed Indonesia's experienced duo Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan in the quarter-finals, in Dubai, on Friday.

The Indian pair registered an emphatic 21-11, 21-12 victory.

Rankireddy and Shetty will next take on Chinese Taipei's Lee Yang and Wang Chi-lin in the semi-finals.

Earlier, two-time Olympic medallist PV Sindhu squandered a game lead to go down against second seed An Se Young of Korea in the women's singles quarters.

Two-time Olympic medallist P V Sindhu squandered a game lead to go down 21-18, 5-21, 9-21 against second seed An Se Young of Korea in the women's singles quarter-finals.
 
Sindhu, seeded eighth, pocked the first game 21-18 but looked completely off colour in the next two games to hand Young a place in the semis.

The other Indian hope, eighth seed H S Prannoy also bowed out in the quarters after conceding his match midway against Kanta Tsuneyama of Japan.

Prannoy was trailing 11-21, 9-13 when he retired due to an injury.

Earlier in the day, qualifiers Rohan Kapoor and N Sikki Reddy battled hard before losing a tough three-game mixed doubles contest against Dejan Ferdinansyah and Gloria Emanuelle Widjaja of Indonesia.

The Indian pair fought for one hour and five minutes before losing the quarterfinal by 18-21, 21-19, 15-21 margin.