The Indian pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty lost to the Indonesian pair of Marcus Gideon and Kevin Sukamuljo in a badminton Group A match in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, on Monday. The Indonesia pair won the match in straight games – 21-13, 21-12.

The Indonesian pair, ranked world no 1, dispatched the Indians, ranked 10, in the world in 32 minutes. It was their ninth defeat to the Indonesian pair in as many meetings.

Sukamuljo and Gideon are now at the top of the group, while Satwik and Chirag are on the second spot. The Indians will look to beat England’s Ben Lane and Sean Vendy, who had also suffered a defeat against the famed Indonesians.

The match started with short rallies with both the parties moving neck and neck till 6-6. The Indonesians then reeled off five straight points to lead at the interval with four advantage points.

Sukamuljo was simply sensational in front of the court, using his high racquet speed to perfection.

At 9-13, Chirag took a medical timeout after he seemed to have hurt his toe.

After the resumption, the Indonesian pair continued to dominate the proceedings and grabbed eight game points and converted in the second attempt to take a 1-0 lead.

In the second game, the Indians lead 6-3, but the Indonesians had other ideas in mind. They soon turned the game around and lead 9-7 with four straight points, riding on a series of superb serves.

Sukamuljo and Gideon entered the break with a three-point lead. The duo forced the Indians into committing errors and move to 15-10.

It was a lop-sided match as the world no 1 opened an 18-10 gap.

A net error gave Indonesia eight match points and they sealed it when Chirag went to the net.

On Saturday, Satwik and Chirag shocked the world number three pair of Yang Lee and Chi-Lin Wang of Chinese Taipei in their opening Group A match. The Chinese Taipei duo had claimed back-to-back titles at the Yonex Thailand Open, Toyota Thailand Open and BWF World Tour Finals earlier this year.  

In the singles event, Olympic silver medallist P V Sindhu also made a winning start by brushing aside Israel’s Ksenia Polikarpova on Sunday.

However, B Sai Praneeth had lost his opening match to Misha Zilberman of Israel in the men’s singles.