Pair of aces: Satwik and Chirag thrive on Thai love to reach final

Bangkok, May 18

India’s premier men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty entered the final of the Thailand Open with an easy straight-game victory over Ming Che Lu and Tang Kai Wei of Chinese Taipei here today.

The Asian Games champions needed just 35 minutes to beat the world No. 80 pair 21-11 21-12 in a semifinals match of the Super 500 tournament at the Nimibutr Stadium.

Satwiksairaj and Chirag have fond memories in Thailand, where they had won their maiden Super 500 crown in 2019. Today, the Indian pair inched closer to adding another title to their garlanded career.

“It has already been a good tournament for us. We wanted to play more tournaments to get the rhythm back. We always love playing in Thailand, there is a special bond here. We won our first medal, we won the Thomas Cup here, and now one more final here. It’s really amazing,” Satwiksairaj said.

The Indians thus continued to make waves on the BWF World Tour after progressing to their fourth final of the season. The duo had finished runners-up at the Malaysia Open Super 1000 and India Open Super 750 before claiming the French Open Super 750 in March.

“We wanted to go deep into the tournament and we have been winning consistently so one more day to go now, so we will give our best performance tomorrow,” Chirag said.

In the final tomorrow, the world No. 3 Indian duo, who are the top seeds in the tournament, will be up against the Chinese pair of Chen Bo Yang and Liu Yi. The Chinese defeated Kim Gi Jung and Kim Sa Rang of South Korea 21-19 21-18 in the other semifinal.

Satwiksairaj and Chirag went through some topsy-turvy moments in the last couple of tournaments. They lost in the second round at the All England Championships and then missed the Asia Championships due to an injury to Satwiksairaj. The Thomas Cup campaign was also not fruitful as they lost a couple of narrow matches to top pairs. The final will provide a major boost ahead of the Olympics. “There will be a lot of expectations. They’re hoping for a big thing but we’re not thinking much. It is one match at a time for us,” Satwiksairaj said:

In the women’s doubles, the fourth-seeded Indian pair of Tanisha Crasto and Ashwini Ponnappa lost 12-20 20-22 to top seeds Jongkolphan Kititharakul and Rawinda Prajongjai of Thailand.