India, Aug. 21 -- Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty's fight fizzled out in the prequarter-finals as they went down tamely to Chinese third seeds Chang Wang and Liang Wei Keng 21-18, 21-9 at the BWF World Championships here.

Taking the court after India secured an unexpected medal from the women's doubles combination of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand, the home crowd filled the stands hoping to see Satwik and Chirag conjure up similar magic. They were left disappointed.

Midway through the second game, the crowd that was vociferously cheering for the home team lost its voice. The sinking feeling was also visible in the body language of the two players in the middle. Errors flowed from their racquets, and there were no signs of ...