In a nerve wrecking contest, ace double pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty pulled off a stunning come from behind victory to stun top seeds Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Rian Adrianto of Indonesia 17-21, 21-13, 21-14 to clinch the Korea Open Badminton Super 500 crown at the Jinnam Stadium in Yeosu, South Korea on Sunday.
With this result, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty have won their last five finals on the BWF World Tour. The Indian pair last lost a title decider at the French Open 2019 against another Indonesian pair, Marcus Fernaldi Gideon and Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo.
This was Satwik and Chirag’s seventh title on the BWF World Tour. The Indian duo had already won the Swiss and Indonesia Open titles this year heading into Sunday’s contest.
The title triumph earned the Indian duo 9200 BWF World Ranking points and a prize purse of USD 33180 (approximately Rs 27 lakh).
The world No. 3 and third seeds in this tournament, Satwik and Chirag, made a slow start to the match against the reigning All England and Malaysia Open champions and fell 10-19 behind. A host of unforced errors didn’t help their cause.
The Indians picked up their game as the match progressed and continued reducing the Indonesian pair’s lead but it was a too late to salvage the opening game.
The second game saw a much better start from Satwik and Chirag who took an 11-8 lead going into the interval. The Indians upped the ante after the restart and forced a decider.
Fajar and Muhammad Rian looked to find a response to the Indians’ aggressive play in the third game but Satwik and Chirag showed a lot of maturity to deny the more-experienced Indonesians.
The Indians took an 11-8 lead into the break and kept their noses ahead to upset the World No. 1 in a 62-minute affair. Satwik and Chirag have now beaten Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Rian Ardianto in three of their five head-to-head clashes.
Former world champion PV Sindhu is the only other Indian to clinch the Korea Open title when she defeated Japan’s Nozomi Okuhara back in 2017. Sindhu, meanwhile, was ousted in the opening round after the Indian went down to Chinese Taipei’s Pai Yu Po on Wednesday.
Results at the Korea Open count towards players’ qualifying rankings for the Paris 2024 Olympics. The qualification window for Badminton started on May 1 this year.