New Delhi: Star Indian shuttlers Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty progressed to the men’s doubles second round with a tough straight-game victory over Chinese Taipei’s Chang Ko-Chi and Po Li-Wei at the Australian Open Super 500 tournament on Tuesday.

The world number 3 Indian pair, which had reached back-to-back finals at the Hong Kong Super 500 and China Masters Super 750, prevailed 25-23, 21-16 in a fighting 48-minute opening-round contest against Ko-Chi and Po Li-Wei.

India pair falls behind in opening game

The top seeded Indian pair fell 2-6 behind early in the opening game, with the Taiwanese pair maintaining a slender lead until 16-14. After that, the Indian players turned the tables to go up 19-17 but the game went down to the wire creating a lot of suspense. A net shot

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