World Championships: Satwik-Chirag enters last 8, Treesa- Gayatri bow out

Copenhagen: Star Indian men's doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty stood one step away from another World Championships medal after reaching the quarterfinals with a three-game win over Indonesia's Leo Rolly Carnando and Daniel Marthin here on Thursday.

The world number two pair, which had claimed a maiden bronze in the last edition, bounced back from a mid-game slump to outwit Carnando and Marthin, ranked 10th, 21-15 19-21 21-9 in the round of 16 match that lasted a little over an hour.

The Commonwealth Games champions, who won four titles this season, will meet either 11th seeds Kim Astrup and Anders Skaarup Rasmussen from Denmark or Malaysian seventh seeded combination of Ong Yew Sin and Teo Ee Yi next.

Earlier, the women's doubles pair of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand, who reached the semifinals of the All England Championships in the last two editions, couldn't sustain the attack and went down 14-21 9-21 in 42 minutes against top seeded Chinese duo of Chen Qing Chen and Jia Yi Fan.

It was only the second meeting between Gayatri-Treesa and the Chinese pair with the Indians having lost to the world number one Chinese team at the German Open last year. Chen and Jia are three-time gold medallists at the World Championships, won three BWF titles, and finished runner-up twice this season.

Satwik and Chirag showed great anticipation and execution to dish out an attacking game. Chirag was simply superb with his interceptions as he glided through the court and punished any weak returns from their rivals. The Indian pairs had a slow start but Chirag and Satwik soon stepped up, bringing more discipline in their approach.

The Indians rained down their cross court returns with Chirag patrolling the front court. Soon Satwik unleashed his explosive smash to grab a three-point lead at the breather. The Indonesian tried to fight back with a couple of points but couldn't break the strong defence of the Indians, who quickly extended the lead to 15-10.