China Open: Ashwini-Satwik stun CWG silver medallists, Srikanth too wins

Changzhou, Sept 19: Indian mixed doubles pairing of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Ashwini Ponnappa on Wednesday shocked Commonwealth Games silver medallists England’s Marcus Ellis and Lauren Smith to enter the pre-quarterfinals of the USD 1 million China Open here.
World No. 25 Satwiksairaj and Ashwini, who had lost twice to the English combination in the past, executed their plan well to notch up a 21-13 20-22 21-17 win in a match that lasted an hour and three minutes.
“It was a good match. We were pretty confident today at crucial moments. We struck to our plans so it became a little easy in the end,” Satwik said.
The Indian pair will face top seed Chinese combination of Zheng Siwei and Huang Yaqiong.
Seventh seed K Srikanth, who had reached the quarterfinals last week at Japan Open, too was through to the pre-quarterfinals after beating Denmark’s Rasmus Gemke 21-9 21-19 to set up a meeting with Thailand’s Suppanyu Avihingsanon. (PTI)

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