India’s leading men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty sailed into the quarterfinals of the China Open Super 1000 badminton tournament with a straight-game win over Indonesia’s Leo Rolly Carnando and Bagas Maulana on Thursday.

The former World Number 1 Indian pair demonstrated tactical discipline and composure to register a 21-19 21-19 victory over the eighth-seeded Indonesians in a close contest.

“It was quite a topsy-turvy match, just back and forth the whole time. We didn’t really have a sizable lead, and neither did they. Eventually, I think around 16-something, we finally had that breakthrough — got 3–4 points in a row and managed to close out the first game. But I think, at the start of the second game, we could have been a bit more composed. We could’ve restricted them a bit more. That said, they played some really good badminton too — especially on service receive,” said Chirag.

Satwik and Chirag were made to toil for their win as both games kept on swinging either way. In the opening game, the Indonesians held a slender lead at 8-6 and later at 14-12. From 14-16, the Indian pair won five straight points to surge ahead 19-16 before sealing the opening game.

The second game witnessed a similar pattern with Leo and Bagas taking a 14-10 lead at one stage. But the Indians fought their way back to level the scores at 18-18 and held their composure in the closing stages to win the match.

“Yeah, I think with each passing day, we’re definitely feeling better. There’s still a long way to go. I wouldn’t say we’re at our best just yet. But I’m happy with the way we’ve been playing. We haven’t played many tournaments over the past year, so that’s one of the reasons we’ve entered Macau,” Chirag said.

It was, however, curtains for HS Prannoy, who crashed out of the tournament after a hard-fought 21-18 15-21 8-21 loss to sixth seed Chou Tien Chen of Chinese Taipei in a 65-minute men’s singles second-round match.