Off-colour Satwik-Chirag hit a Chinese wall; end with bronze

The Asian Games champions squander a big first game lead and fade away in the decider in the Paris Worlds semi-finals

- Sandip Sikdar

Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty had beaten Chen Bo Yang and Liu Yi to clinch the Thailand Open in May 2024, the last time they won a title. Itwas the same Chinese pair standing between them and their first final in 15 months in Paris late on Saturday. Only this time the stakes were higher, the stage bigger.

But it proved a bridge too far as the Indian pair lost a topsy-turvy men’s doubles semifinal 19-21, 21-18, 12-21 in 67 minutes to end their BWF World Championships campaign with a bronze, their second, having finished with the same medal in 2022. “This week has been really good. (We) played some really good matches, beat pairs who we've not had a good record against. But sad that we couldn't play the final. We really wanted to. But overall good to win a bronze,” said Shetty.

By claiming the bronze in Paris, Rankireddy and Shetty extended India's medal-winning streak at the Worlds, winning at least one medal in every edition since 2011. They are only the third Indian pair/player to win multiple medals at the annual competition after PV Sindhu (5) and Saina Nehwal (2).

Good start

The relatively young Chinese pair was nervous at the start.