Badminton News: Saina Nehwal and PV Sindhu eased into quarter-finals

Big hitting Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty stunned reigning world champions Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan of Indonesia 21-18, 18-21, 21-13 in the men's doubles second round of the French Open BWF Super-750 Tournament in Paris. The duo joined PV Sindhu, Saina Nehwal in the quarterfinals. Satwik and Chirag have shocked the 2018 world champions in July to win the Thailand Open title. Thereafter, Satwik injured his shoulder and they were forced to withdraw from the World Championships in August. But the World No.11 pair exhibited their skills once again on the big stage as they dominated the World No.2 team in three games. In the quarterfinals on Friday, Satwik-Chirag will face Kim Astrup and Anders Skaarup of Denmark. Also, After three consecutive first-round exits, Saina thrashed Lina Hojmark Kjaersfeldt of Denmark 21-10, 21-11 in just 27 minutes in the pre-quarterfinals. Saina started with a 4-1 lead and widened it to 11-4 at the break. In the second game too Saina dominated her opponent without breaking any sweat.