French Open: Satwik-Chirag knocked out of men's doubles

The top Indian men's doubles pair, Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy, were knocked out of the French Open Super 750 badminton tournament after losing their round of 32 match to Indonesia's Rahmat Hidayat and Muhammad Rian Ardianto on Wednesday. The Indian duo went down 18-21, 20-22 in a closely fought encounter.

However, rising star Unnati Hooda kept Indian hopes alive by progressing to the pre-quarter-finals. The 18-year-old staged a remarkable comeback in her women's singles first-round match, overcoming Malaysia's Letshanaa Karupathevan 11-21, 21-13, 21-16 after dropping the opening



game.

In men's singles, Ayush Shetty bowed out in the first round, losing 19-21, 19-21 to Japan's experienced Koki Watanabe. In women's singles, Anupama Upadhyaya was defeated by China's Han Yue 15-21, 11-21, while Anmol Kharb lost 15-21, 9-21 to South Korea's An Se-young in the round of 32.

Earlier on Tuesday, Lakshya Sen also exited the tournament, suffering a straight-game defeat to Ireland's Nhat Nguyen in the men's singles opening round. The 24-year-old from Almora, who had reached the finals of the Hong Kong Open, struggled from the start and went down 7-21, 16-21 to the world number 29.