Seventh seeded Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty retires while Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand advanced along with men’s singles shuttler Lakshya Sen in the All England Open 2025 in Birmingham on Thursday.
The top-ranked Indian men’s doubles pair conceded their pre-quarters match after Chirag’s back injury flared up while the pair was trailing 16-21 2-2.
“I had some pain from yesterday’s match. I have been wearing a brace for the past week on my disc but it increased during yesterday’s first game actually. It was quite unbearable for me to move around. We thought we will see for the first 10 points but it was too difficult to play,” he said.
Rankireddy came to know about his partner’s injury just ahead of the match.
“Tough times, I felt we are in very comfortable position. Even he (Chirag) was trying from the first day but he didn’t tell me, so he was just playing with the pain. Before the match he told me and said we will see and I said no worries, this is not the end of the life. May be not this year, next year for sure,” Rankireddy said.
Paris 2024 semi-finalists defeated defending champion Jonatan Christie of Indonesia 21-13, 21-10 in just 36 minutes.
Sen always looked in control against the World No.2, avenging his All England Open semi-finals defeat from last year.
In the women’s doubles, Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand knocked out eighth seeded Kim Hye-jeong and Kong Hee-yong of the Republic of Korea 15-21, 21-18, 21-18 to reach the quarter-finals.