After a splendid campaign in China Masters 2023, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty finally met their match in the Chinese pair of Liang Wei Keng and Wang Chang. The top seeds fought valiantly right till the end but eventually ran out of steam, losing the final 19-21, 21-18, 19-21 to Keng and Chang. (Badminton News)
The Indians displayed nerves of steel in the last game, saving six match points in a row. They fought back from 13-20 down to 19-20, only to lose the last remaining match point in the humdinger.
Satwik and Chirag started a bit sluggishly as the Chinese pair seized control in the first game. The Indians tried to reduce the gap but ended up losing the game narrowly by 19-21.
Advertisement
The second game saw Satwik and Chirag bounce back with their famililar short points, attacking style rhythm. They built up a 16-12 lead in the business end and closed out the game 21-18 to force a decider. Sadly, their efforts went in vain.
Nevertheless, Satwik and Chirag capped off a strong campaign in Shenzen, having beaten China's He Ji Ting and Ren Xiang Yu 21-15, 22-20 in the semi-finals on Saturday. The Indian pair have won six out of the seven semi-finals they have contested in this calendar year so far - the only loss coming in the Malaysia Open Super 1000 event in January.
Advertisement
The ace Indian badminton men's doubles pair is having an absolutely smashing 2023. The duo earlier brought laurels for the country by winning a historic gold medal at the Hangzhou Asian Games 2023 in October. The achievement was soon followed by the pair climbling a hitherto unscaled peak - the World Number 1 rank in the men's doubles category.
Satwik and Chirag have also won the Badminton Asia Championships, Indonesia Super 1000, Korea Super 500 and Swiss Super 300 titles this year. But despite all these impressive achievements through the course of 2023, Satwik and Chirag haven't made the cut for the prestigious year-ending BWF World Tour Finals in Hangzhou, the same city where they scripted history.
The seeming anomaly is due to the qualification criteria for the event. To calculate the top eight pairs in the season, the BWF World Tour Finals count their points in the 14 best tournaments they have had over the past year. The overall rankings, however, count just the 10 best tournaments in the same period.
Nevertheless, the Indian pair will be focused on maintaining their consistency in the future tournaments and clawing their way back to the top-three in the BWF rankings. A key home tourney in the form of the Syed Modi India International 2023 beckons in Lucknow from November 28, but given its proximity to their gruelling China Masters campaign, Satwik-Chirag's participation is uncertain.
