Currently India’s best shuttle players – HS Prannoy in men’s singles and Chirag Shetty-Satwiksairaj Rankireddy in men’s doubles – produced commanding performances on Thursday to reach the quarterfinals at the China Masters Super 750 in Shenzhen.

Prannoy got the better of rising young Dane shuttler Magnus Johannesen, breezing through to a controlled 21-12, 21-18 win in 40 minutes. 

Top seeds Satwik and Chirag made light work of what was a tricky test on paper, getting past the Japanese duo of Akira Koga and Taichi Saito 21-15, 21-16 in 46 minutes.

For Chirag and Satwik, the stay at world No. 1 was brief but there is a window to climb back up the rankings if they can go the distance in China. And they have played their two matches so far looking like they mean business. 

Saito and Koga came into this match knowing they got the better of the Indians in their last meeting, a three-game thriller at the Singapore Open. But from the word go, the Indians looked in form.

A sign of that is usually how well they can rotate between each other from front and back and that was on show on Thursday. While Koga and Saito largely depended on their defence, the dovetailing between the Indians made it difficult for their opponents. 

Both Chirag and Satwik took turns to impress from the front-court, and on more than one occasion, displayed solid racket-head control to change the direction of the shuttle.