Tag: Satwiksairaj Rankireddy

  • Sameer, blended doubles pair of Satwik and Ponnappa sail into quarterfinals of Thailand Open

    Image Source : GETTY IMAGES File photograph of Ashwini Ponnappa (left) with blended doubles companion Satwiksairaj Rankireddy.
    India’s Sameer Verma superior to the boys’s singles quarterfinals on the Toyota Thailand Open Super 1000 match after steam rolling Rasmus Gemke of Denmark in a second-round match right here on Thursday.
    The world quantity 31 Indian wanted simply 39 minutes to see off Gemke 21-12, 21-9.
    The blended doubles pairing of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Ashwini Ponnappa additionally sailed into the quarterfinals with a tough fought 22-20, 14-21, 21-16 win over the German duo of Mark Lamsfuss and Isabel Herttrich in a match that lasted near an hour.

    This was Sameer’s third victory over Gemke. The Indian had defeated the world quantity 17 Danish participant of their earlier two clashes.
    Sameer will face third seed Anders Antonsen of Denmark, who obtained a walkover, within the quarterfinals.
    “I was very confident before the match. I came prepared. Next up I have Anders Antonsen from Denmark. I’m feeling very confident, so let’s see. It will be tough but I will play my best,” Sameer mentioned.

  • Thailand Open: Satwik-Chirag bow out of males’s doubles in second spherical

    Image Source : GETTY IMAGES Satwik-Chirag suffered a 19-21, 17-21 defeat in opposition to the Indonesian duo of Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan in a match that lasted 34 minutes.
    The star Indian badminton pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty crashed out of the lads’s doubles occasion within the ongoing Thailand Open after struggling a straight-games defeat of their second-round contest on Thursday.
    Satwik-Chirag suffered a 19-21, 17-21 defeat in opposition to the Indonesian duo of Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan in a match that lasted 34 minutes.

    The Indian duo began off effectively, however could not maintain on to their lead as Ahsan and Setiawan received the tight first recreation 21-19. In the second recreation, the Indonesian duo, howeved, upped their recreation and eased to a 21-17 win to enter the quarter-finals.

    Earlier on Wednesday, India’s top-ranked males’s doubles pair had fought again to beat their South Korean opponents Kim Gi Jung and Lee Yong Dae 19-21, 21-16, 21-14 in a single hour and eight minutes.
    Parupalli Kashyap had exited from the event after he retired within the third recreation of his first-round conflict in opposition to Canada’s Jason Anthony Ho-Shue owing to a calf damage.
    MR Arjun and Dhruv Kapila had additionally narrowly misplaced their males’s doubles opening spherical contest 21-13, 8-21, 22-24 to Malaysian pair Ong Yew Sin and Teo Ee.
    However, Olympic bronze medallist Saina Nehwal and former world primary Kidambi Srikanth received their respective first spherical matches and shall be enjoying their second spherical clashes on Thursday.

  • On a day of Covid chaos, Ashwini-Satwik keep calm underneath stress

    Just how a lot the coronavirus pandemic lurks within the shadows and may cease an athlete from doing the one factor she loves greatest — competing — turned obvious to Ashwini Ponappa the second she stepped onto the Impact Arena court docket.
    Nothing slyly microscopic, nor towering like her Indonesian opponent, might cease India’s prime blended doubles pairing of Ashwini and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy from scalping World No.8 Hafiz Fazal and Gloria Emanuelle Widjaja on the Thailand Super 1000. The duo gained 21-11, 27-29, 21-16, amidst an almighty Covid-19 commotion engulfing the pairing’s return to court docket.
    Ten months have lapsed fleeing the invisible virus, with the an infection catching up with some – together with each her enjoying companions in doubles. The shadow would stalk her once more simply when she was about to renew enjoying a aggressive recreation as soon as once more: the Indian squad feared being stopped from enjoying after two positives put them within the excessive danger class.
    “With all that was going on, it was a bit distracting as it happened just as we were getting ready to get on court. I remember at that moment being very happy that we’re playing a match and not asked to withdraw. Was grateful to get to play,” she stated.
    It was within the 72 minutes after the match began that Ashwini would rediscover the sheer pleasure and privilege of with the ability to compete on the highest stage – one thing she believed all prime gamers begin taking as a right. Both her and Satwik, dripping perspiration and pushed to the boundaries, would proceed grinning all through, nearly in disbelief of returning to competitors.
    “Felt great to be back on court competing. I’ve had months of training and zero competition so I was pretty eager to play a match. Though there weren’t any tournaments the past couple of months, training has been in full swing, and I was happy to put to use what I’ve been working on,” she would say.
    The sheer power and conviction in pulling off their gameplans – nuanced smashes from Satwik and variations in angles from Ashwini – would unsettle the sixth seeds. It mirrored within the opening set blitz 21-11, because the Indians got here bolting out the barns, pouncing at enjoying every level as if it was their final, with the concern of being pulled out and denied the prospect to play the subsequent second.
    Errors slipped out with each shake of momentum because the tall Widjaja repeatedly tried to take management. Two match factors have been wasted and the Top 10 Indonesians would make good lastly on their seventh set level to stage at 29-27.
    Satwik would stay tentative on the internet, however he had sufficient vary and selection in his half smashes and drops to seek out gaps on the court docket. Yet what fetched them factors was summoned again at will, because the lockdown enhancements have been seen. “We both knew that we were doing quite a few things right, so the focus was to continue what we’re doing and stick to what was working,” Ashwini defined.

    While sharpness of strokes may’ve wavered, there was a simple rotation to their actions which meant they have been pulling off setpieces properly.
    A mid-set scoreline like 29-27 can dampen the desire to combat, particularly in the event you’ve been in placing vary with a few match factors. But not this time. Ashwini was all composure. “Third set, it was important for us to be patient and not rush into getting points. Glad we held onto our nerves and didn’t hurry up with trying to finish, that made a difference,” she stated.
    The Indians would press the pedal immediately in the beginning of the decider. And guard their leads posessively to seize the win. Starved of enjoying — badminton tragically hurtling from one cancellation to subsequent in 2020 — Ashwini had desperately missed doing precisely this. “Definitely missed competing. Though there are tons of restrictions and playing at a tournament is not like what it was before Covid, the feeling of being on court playing a match is awesome. There’s nothing that comes close to actually playing at a tournament. All the practice work can’t really emulate that feeling,” she stated.

  • Thailand Open: Satwiksairaj Rankireddy, Ashwini Ponnappa advance in blended doubles

    Image Source : GETTY IMAGES File picture of Ashwini Ponnappa (left) and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy.
    The Indian blended doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Ashwini Ponnappa on Tuesday superior to the second spherical of the Thailand Open following a hard-fought win over Indonesia’s Hafiz Faizal and Gloria Emanuelle Widjaja.

    Satwiksairaj and Ashwini defeated their Indonesian opponent 21-11, 27-29, 21-16 within the opening spherical contest which lasted one hour and 12 minutes.

    The Indian duo will subsequent face the Chinese pair of Chang Tak Ching and Ng Wing Yung for a spot within the quarterfinals.

    Meanwhile, Saina Nehwal and HS Prannoy have withdrawn from the event after testing constructive for Covid-19.

    “Two Indian players, Saina Nehwal and HS Prannoy, have tested positive for Covid-19. Both players have withdrawn from the tournament and have been isolated in a hospital for a minimum of 10 days,” the Badminton Association of India (BAI) confirmed on their official Twitter deal with.

    “BAI is in constant touch with BWF, team management, players and organiser,” it added.

    Saina slated to tackle Kisona Selvaduray of Malaysia in her opening spherical contest on Tuesday who has now been given a walkover. Prannoy, then again, was slated to tackle Malaysia’s Lee Zii Jia in his opening spherical contest.

    Saina’s husband Parupalli Kashyap has additionally withdrawn from the event. Kashyap was to tackle Jason Anthony Ho-Shue of Canada in his opening spherical contest. Jason has been given a walkover.
     

  • Badminton begins with gamers determined to hit courts

    Satwiksairaj Rankireddy had been counting the times. Approximately 300. A season so decidedly wiped off from badminton gamers’ lives that India’s prime doubles title did double takes on the final time he final performed on the court docket. 10 months. 45 weeks later, he would be aware on the eve of enjoying his first aggressive match on the Thailand Super 1000, posting an image with two teammates who had helped him tide over a Covid-19 restoration.
    “This is where I belong, and these are the people who make me who I am – back on the court and playing with my partners, this is what life is all about!” he would caption a cheerful body with Ashwini Ponappa and Chirag Shetty. The combined doubles pairing will play India’s first recreation of 2021 in opposition to sixth seed Indonesians Hafiz Faizal and Gloria Widjaja.
    Badminton, like Parupalli Kashyap’s backhand which he drags from one diagonal nook and whips it to the opposite cross finish, has contrived to stretch the pandemic 12 months of 2020 an entire month into 2021. Determined to wrap up final 12 months’s truncated season, the BWF has packed in an Asian leg of three again to again to again tournaments right into a bio bubble in Bangkok.
    The actual enterprise of qualifying for Olympics will start solely in March. It would possibly clarify how shuttlers – often averse to stepping out of the hotel-stadium routines even in non-virus occasions throughout a match – have opened up their charming low-key lives to the world on social media.
    In the week-long diaries chronicled by the BWF, badminton that stuttered in the direction of solely its second pitstop on the tour after the Denmark one off tourney in October, has tried to placed on gleeful filters earlier than the shuttle takes flight on the Impact Arena.

    For one, the strict quarantine protocols with gamers seen as a part of a rustic’s squad and obligated to share coaching occasions and areas, ensured that PV Sindhu and Saina Nehwal had just a few nice follow hits in opposition to one another within the run-up. The two are on collision-course within the quarters, and in pre-pandemic occasions, it could be unthinkable to look at them prepare collectively (most nations with prime singles gamers don’t spar collectively in badminton, for the report). But the 60 minute coaching slots have thrown the 2 massive names collectively, and follow has gone on easily.
    Saina performs the lanky Kisona Selvaduray, the 22 12 months previous Malaysian South East Asia champ from 2019 in her opener. As a perennial contender for any contested crown, Sindhu will discover Tai Tzu Ying in her draw half making an attempt to cease her, whereas Carolina Marin ought to fetch up from the underside half, preserving ladies’s singles the prime attraction of the game. Korean An Se Young and native favorite Ratchanok can cease the Spaniard. Sindhu is first up in opposition to Danish Mia Blichfeldt, who quipped throughout the first few days of isolation that she would choose up knitting within the lodge room as a interest since there was little else to do.
    Quarantine quirks
    The thought of knitting occurred to Mia, by way of English doubles participant Lauren Smith, who apart from packing knit yarns, is setting social media alight along with her room exercises together with the Copenhagen Holds (a one-hand elbow plank) & Bulgarian cut up squats (one-leg squats). A very boring day cooped up in her lodge room additionally noticed her take movies of rubbing her cheeks and nostril throughout the ground size glass home windows.
    Danish Anders Skaarup Rasmussen determined very early on to shoot each day movies of pigeon exercise – sufficient for him to establish new additions to the standard suspects who placed on a present for him out his window. “We spend so much time in the room, didnt want to watch television,” he defined his weird birding topics.
    The Danes have made up 3 Vs 2 warmup video games within the tiniest of zones the place they play dont-drop-the-shuttle passing parcel. The champion is Hans Kristen Vittinghus, who made no bones about being happy when World No 1 Kento Momota examined constructive and returned from Haneda Airport, shearing the match of Japan. China had withdrawn earlier.
    Vittinghus would journey with a further suitcase of meals. “Brought normal stuff like clothes, rackets, trainers and all that stuff. Then I have another suitcase full of food,” he informed BWF. “I have oatmeal, instant noodles, snacks, protein bars, Danish bread and biscuits. You name it, I have it.”
    All kinds of consolation meals has discovered its method in valuable jars. Aussie Vegemite and Egyptian roasted almond butter, to maintain shutters firm. Though first the Indians (“too oily”) adopted by Tai Tzu (“too bland chicken breast”) and Carolina Marin (“not athletes food”) have crinkled noses on the bento field choices dispatched to every of them. The English squad celebrated a beef roast with a lot glee, whereas the Russians posted a solitary picture entry of 5 topless males ready for a bus to take them to early morning coaching, donning shorts and masks on an empty road.
    Thai group buses come socially distanced – large aisles and single seats, retro fitted to permit house. The 800 odd flock of shutters underwent their third covid take a look at on Sunday with Prannoy and Chirag Shetty making an attempt their finest to look cheerful earlier than the cotton swab was pushed up their nostrils.
    Sai Praneeth might be on present court docket in opposition to Thai Kantaphon Wangcharoen on Tuesday. Kidambi Srikanth begins on Wednesday in opposition to Sourabh Verma, and would possibly run into Prannoy, ought to the backhand beast finest Malaysian eighth seed Lee Zii Jia. Kashyap performs Canadian Jason Ho-Shue, however has Indonesian Jonathan Christie doubtlessly lined up subsequent. While the Danes and Indonesians – each having educated uninterrupted for atleast six months – are favourites to win the lads’s singles title, India would possibly wish to take a look at how deep an injury-free singles pack could go into the match.