Satwik-Chirag enter second round of French Open

Rennes (France): Newly-crowned world number one pairing of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty stormed into the men’s doubles second round of the French Open Super 750 badminton tournament with a straight game win here on Tuesday.

The Asian Games gold medallists, who had skipped the Denmark Open super 750 last week, beat world no 34 Lucas Corvee and Ronan Labar 21-13 21-13 in a lop-sided contest here.

Satwik and Chirag will next meet three-time world champions Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan of Indonesia.

The 2014 Asian Games gold medallists defeated Chinese Taipei’s Lu Ching Yao and Yang Po Han.

It took just 35 minutes for the Indian pair to get past Lucas and Ronan, who lagged behind right from the start as Satwik and Chirag dominated the proceedings, leading 11-6 at the interval and kept moving ahead to close the opening game.

The second game had a similar script as Satwik and Chirag jumped to a 11-6 advantage once again and kept their stranglehold to seal the issue.

Two-time Olympic medallist PV Sindhu will meet Gregoria Mariska Tunjung later in the day in women’s singles.