Satiwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty back in action in China Masters Super 750 tournament

Hyderabad: Indian badminton doubles stars Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty are back in the circuit after Satwiksairaj recovered from a shoulder injury. The pair, whose last competitive match was at the Paris Olympics 2024, could not take part in many tournaments due to Satwiksairaj’s injury.

The premier doubles duo will be in action at the China Masters Super 750 badminton tournament in Shenzhen, China, from November 19.

The duo who missed the Arctic Open, Denmark Open and China Open among other events would aim at getting back into the groove at the earliest, especially since the duo do not have the services of doubles specialist coach Mathias Boe.

Satwiksairaj and Chirag, who were the runner-up in the last editions, will start their campaign against Chinese Taipei’s Yang Po-Hsuan and Lee Jhe-Huei in the first round.

Along with the men’s doubles pair, PV Sindhu, Lakshya Sen, Aakarshi Kashyap, Malvika Bansod, the pair of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand and the pair of Sumeeth Reddy and Sikki Reddy are the Indians who will be in action.

Lakshya and Sindhu are struggling to find their form and Lakshya endured early exits at the Arctic Open Super 500, Denmark Open and at the Kumamoto Masters Japan.

The 23-year-old shuttler will start against the seventh-seeded Malaysian Lee Zii Jia in the first round.

Sindhu, meanwhile, will play her first round match against Thailand’s Supanida Katethong. Sindhu has a good record against Katethong, leading 5-4 on head-to-head record. However, the nemesis for Sindhu will be Canada’s Michelle Li, whom she lost to in the opening round in Finland and then in the round-of-16 in Japan.

Aakarshi Kashyap will be up against Tomoka Miyazaki of Japan in the first round while Malvika Bansod will meet Line Hojmark Kjaersfeldt in her first round match.

Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand, who lost in the first round at the Kumamoto Masters Japan, will open against China’s Liu Sheng Shu and Tan Ning. Sheng Shu and Ning are seeded second in the tournament.