Satwik-Chirag Vs Liu-Yang Highlights, BWF World Championships: Indians Win In Straight Games, Ease Into Round Of 16

Good evening and welcome to everyone joining us this Wednesday. We are back with another badminton blog, and this time, it's the ace Indian pairing of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty in action. Stay with us for the build-up and live updates from their opening-round match.

Indian badminton superstar PV Sindhu eases into the women's singles round of 16, beating Malaysia's Karupathevan Letshanaa 21-19, 21-15. Satwik-Chirag's match is up next, and out they come onto the court.

The BWF World Championships round of 32 match between India's Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty and Chinese Taipei's Liu Kuang Heng and Yang Po Han will be live streamed on the JioHotstar app and website in India. It will be telecast on the Sports 18 Network TV channels in the country.

The Indian pair begins its BWF World Championships campaign. They start off the match with Chirag's serve and earn two points in the bargain.

As is the general nature of elite badminton doubles matches, this too is a fast-paced one, with little breathing space between points. A strong of short points so far and no long rally, as the Indians are locked 5-5 with the Chinese Taipei pair.

It's a neck-and-neck affair so far. The Indians go into the first game break marginally ahead at 11-10. This could go either way.

Satwik-Chirag have opened up a four-point lead in the business end as the score stands at 19-15 in their favour. Their game for the taking now.

Oh, what a comeback from the Taipei pair. They have gone from 16-20 down to level at 20-20. Satwik and Chirag surely rattled and they have lost the momentum on top of that.

Satwik and Chirag heave a sigh of relief as they finally leave the 20-point rung, winning two in a row to take the first game 22-20. A brief stutter for the Indian pair but they have done what they needed to stay in control of the match.

The Indians race away to an 8-5 lead in the second game. They are 13 points away from sealing a round of 16 berth.

The Indian duo goes into the second game interval with an 11-9 advantage and consolidates it, winning three more points on the trot. Satwik and Chirag are now closing in on victory.

The Indians stretch their lead to 19-13 and then call for a line call challenge, which goes in their favour. Seven match points!

They win it at the first time of asking. Satwik and Chirag prevail over Chinese Taipei's Liu Kuang Heng and Yang Po Han 22-20, 21-13 to breeze into the men's doubles round of 16. They follow up PV Sindhu's win earlier and one hopes that HS Prannoy, who takes the court later in the night against second seed Anders Antonsen, can pull off an upset to cap off India's day.