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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Karnataka HC allows Ola, Uber, Rapido bike taxis to operate till June 15
Bengaluru, Apr 29 (PTI): The Karnataka High Court on Tuesday allowed Ola, Uber, and Rapido to continue their bike taxi services until June 15.
A single-judge bench of Justice B M Shyamaprasad heard the interim petition led by Uber India Systems Private Limited, Roppen Transportation Services Private Limited, and ANI Technologies Private Ltd, seeking permission to continue operating bike taxi services.
The court granted the petition.
Earlier, the High Court had given a six-week deadline to Ola, Uber, and Rapido to cease their bike taxi operations. It also directed the state government to ensure proper regulation of bike taxi services within six weeks.
The court observed that the government should issue appropriate guidelines for bike taxi operations under Section 3 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988.
On April 2, the HC had ordered that bike taxi services should not be allowed until further notice.
Transport Minister Ramalinga Reddy had recently instructed the department to comply with the court’s order.
Meanwhile, Rapido has planned to launch a food delivery pilot project to keep its services running. The pilot is likely to begin next week.
