India endured a tough outing on Day 2 of the 2026 All England Open Super 1000 in Birmingham on Wednesday as Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty, Rohan Kapoor-Ruthvika Gadde, and Ayush Shetty all crashed out of contention in the first round.
Up against a lower ranked Kang Khai Xing and Aaron Tai of Malaysia in men’s doubles, the fourth seeded Rankireddy and Shetty lost out in straight games.
The former world No 1 pair had a good start to the match and led 11-6 at the first mid-game interval. However, Kang and Tai, junior world champions from 2024, took over soon after.
The Indians were sucked into a fast, flat gameplay – their Achilles’ heel over the years – and once again stumbled as they fell to a 21-23, 12-21 loss in 42 minutes.
Elsewhere, the mixed doubles pair of Rohan Kapoor and Ruthvika Gadde were of no match to the fifth seeded French pair of Thom Gicquel and Delphine Delrue as they went down 12-21, 15-21 in straight games.
Later in the day, Ayush Shetty crumbled 21-19, 9-21, 17-21 against world No 14 Alwi Farhan, a shuttler he knows all too well.
Shetty was under the pump right from the start and trailed 10-16 in the opening game. He required medical attention multiple times in the contest, thanks to a bleeding knee.
The breaks seemed to have affected Farhan adversely as he lost the momentum and Shetty expertly flipped the tables to win the opening game 21-19.
The second game saw the Indian fall to energy conservation mode once he trailed by seven points at the mid-game interval.
Shetty put up a brave fight as the rallies kept growing longer and longer by each passing minute, but the 2023 junior world champion was too hot to handle in a marathon 75-minute battle.
