China Open: Satwiksairaj Rankireddy, Chirag Shetty crash out in semi-final

The Indian pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty suffered a major blow as they crashed out of the ongoing China Open after going down in the semi-final clash of the men's doubles event of the tournament in Fuzhou on Saturday. 

Rankireddy and Shetty failed to continue their good momentum in the tournament so far and slumped to a shocking 16-21, 20-22 defeat at the hands of Indonesian duo of Marcus Fernaldi Gideon and Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo in a thrilling semi-final clash of the ongoing tournament that lasted 40 minutes.

Marcus and Kevin will now face either the Japanese duo of Takeshi Kamura and Keigo Sonoda or the Malaysian pair of Aaron Chia and Massoh Wooi Yik in the summit showdown of the tournament. 

On Friday, Satwiksairaj and Chirag hardly broke a sweat as they eased past the Chinese team of Li Jun Hui and Liu Yu Chen 21-19, 21-15 triumph in a one-sided last-eight clash that lasted 43 minutes to storm into the semi-final of the tournament. 

With Satwiksairaj and Chirag's exit, India's campaign at the Fuzhou China Open has now ended. 

Earlier, ace Indian shuttlers B Sai Praneeth and Parupalli Kashyap crashed out in their respective second round of the men's singles while London Olympic bronze medallist Saina Nehwal and Rio Olympic silver-medallist PV Sindhu made an exit in the first round of the women's singles event.