In a major blow, India's top men's doubles pair Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy, the defending champions, on Thursday pulled out of their second-round match of the India Open Super 750 tournament due to injury concerns, Badminton Association of India (BAI) said.
"India's top men's doubles pair #SatChi has unfortunately pulled out of the tournament due to an injury. A sad moment for all of us!" the BAI tweeted. The star duo withdrew from the match against the Chinese pair Liu Yu Chen and Ou Xuan Yi due to a groin injury suffered by Satwik.
On Tuesday, the World No. 5 pair registered an easy 21-13, 21-15 opening-round win over Scotland's Christopher Grimley and Mathew Grimley in just 41 minutes.
The defending men's doubles champions were vying for their career's second Super 750 title at India Open 2023, having won the French Open last year after beating the Taipei duo of Lu Ching-Yao and Yang Po-Han.
The Indian duo had scripted history after their 2022 French Open as they became the first Indian men's pair to win the Super 750 title. The Indian contingent has had mixed results in the event so far with P.V Sindhu, Kidambi Srikanth, H.S Prannoy making early exits in the first two days.