China Open: Ashwini Ponnappa leads Indian shuttlers' brilliant show

Indian mixed doubles players Ashwini Ponnappa (left) and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy. Pic/AFP

Indian mixed doubles pairing of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Ashwini Ponnappa yesterday shocked Commonwealth Games silver medallists England's Marcus Ellis and Lauren Smith to enter the pre-quarters of the China Open here. World No. 25 Satwiksairaj and Ashwini, who had lost twice to the English combination in the past, executed their plan well to notch up a 21-13, 20-22, 21-17 win in a match that lasted an hour and three minutes.

"It was a good match. We were pretty confident today at crucial moments. We struck to our plans so it became a little easy in the end," Satwik said. Seventh seed Srikanth, who had reached the quarter-finals last week at Japan Open, too was through to the pre-quarters after beating Denmark's Rasmus Gemke 21-9, 21-19 to set up a meeting with Thailand's Suppanyu Avihingsanon.

Marcus Ellis and Lauren Smith

However, men's doubles pair of Satwik and Chirag Shetty, who had won a silver at the Commonwealth Games, lost 19-21, 20-22 to Goh V Shem and Tan Wee Kiong of Malaysia. CWG bronze medallists Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy also went down 10-21, 18-21 to Korean combination of Kim So Yeong and Kong Hee Yong in women's doubles.

Catch up on all the latest sports news and updates here. Also download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps to get latest updates

This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed, agencies. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever