Satwik-Chirag pair cruises into French Open quarterfinals
Paris (PTI): Star Indian doubles players Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty cruised into the quarterfinals of the French Open Super 750 badminton tournament here with a straight-game victory against the Malaysian pair of Man Wei Chong and Kai Woo Tee.
Satwik and Chirag, who have been on a dream run with successive runner-up finishes in 2023 China Open, Malaysia Open Super 1000 and India Open Super 750 this season to emerge as the world No. 1 doubles pair, defeated the Malaysian duo 21-13, 21-12 in a round-of-16 clash on Thursday night.
The Indians' domination was such that the match ended in just 32 minutes.
They will take on the Thai pair of Jomkoh Supak and Kedren Kittinupong for a place in the semifinal later on Friday.
Meanwhile, PV Sindhu, playing her first BWF tour event since returning from a knee injury, will take on second seed Chen Yu Fei of China in the women's quarterfinal.
Sindhu, a two-time Olympic medallist, had battled her way from an opening-game reversal to outgun world No. 10 Zhang 13-21, 21-10, 21-14 to enter her first quarterfinal of the season.
In another Thursday night match, the women's doubles pair of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand also progressed to the quarterfinals, shocking seventh seeded Japanese duo of Yuki Fukushima and Sayaka Hirota 21-18, 21-13.
They will face top seeds Qing Chen Chen and Yi Fan Jia of China in the next round.
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UP: Farmer shot dead over land dispute in Firozabad, brother injured
Firozabad (PTI): A 45-year-old farmer was shot dead while his brother was injured over an alleged land dispute in the Nasirpur area here, police said on Tuesday.
The incident occurred on Monday night in the Nandram Ki Madiya village, Circle Officer (CO) Sirsaganj Anvesh Kumar said.
According to the police, Satyabhan had an ongoing dispute with a fellow villager, Soorat Ram, over five bighas of land. Around six months ago, the district administration ruled in favour of Satyabhan and ensured, with the assistance of the police, that the last was handed over to him.
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His brother Chandrapal alleged that Soorat was upset over the decision. On Monday night, when Satyabhan was returning from his fields, the accused allegedly intercepted him near his house and opened fire, killing him on the spot.
When the victim’s Radha, his son Shivam and Chandrapal rushed to his rescue, the attackers allegedly assaulted them as well, leaving all three injured
Other family members also reached the spot and rushed Satyabhan to a hospital in Shikohabad, where doctors declared him dead. Chandrapal was also injured in the attack but is stated to be out of danger, police said.
An FIR has been registered based on the complaint of the victim's family, and the body has been sent for post-mortem examination, the CO said.
Efforts are on to trace and arrest the accused, he added.
