Asian men’s doubles champions Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy beat the reigning world champions Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik to win India’s maiden BWF Super 1000 title at the Indonesia Open 2023 badminton tournament in Jakarta on Sunday.
The Indian pair, sixth in men’s doubles badminton rankings, registered a 21-17, 21-18 win over their world No. 3 Malaysian opponents in 43 minutes.
Before this tournament, no Indian pair had ever gone beyond the semi-finals in a BWF Super 1000 World Tour event.
Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy were slow to get off the blocks in the first game but unleashed a flurry of attacking shots to win six consecutive points and take a 9-7 lead. The Indian pair then protected their slender lead and closed the game with two straight points.
Both teams took an aggressive approach in the second game and were level at 6-6. However, Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy demonstrated quicker reflexes to stun their higher-ranked opponents and went into the break with a four-point lead.
Just like in the first game, Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy never allowed Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik to mount a comeback and registered their first-ever win over the Malaysian duo in nine meetings.
“In the earlier eight matches against them, we would hold ourselves back, but today we stuck to the plan,” Chirag Shetty said. “We felt they are humans, they are players, and they will also make mistakes. We stuck to the plan right till the end and never really gave them a chance to come back.
“Even in the second game when they took a couple of points, we were like we don’t have to hold ourselves back and play safe that would have made the game a little slow and they are good at capitalising on. Am really happy and we really needed this win,” Chirag Shetty added.
Chirag Shetty-Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik had also met in the semi-finals of the 2022 world championships in Tokyo which the Indian pair lost in three games.
The win at Indonesia Open was the sixth title for Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy on the BWF World Tour. Their last BWF title came at the Swiss Open Super 300 tournament in March. However, the Indian pair entered the Indonesia Open after suffering a first-round exit at the Singapore Open earlier this month.
The Indian badminton players will next be seen in action at Taipei Open BWF Super 300 event starting Tuesday.a
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