Commonwealth Games Gold Medalist Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy scripted a history as they stunned the reigning world champions Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik in straight games to win India’s maiden BWF Super 1000 title at the Indonesia Open badminton tournament in Jakarta on Sunday.
In an intense final which lasted 43 minutes the Indian pair, sixth in doubles rankings, chalked out a 1-17, 21-18 win over their world No. 3 Malaysian opponents to o become first Indian pair to win Super 1000 title
The Indians took time to get off the blocks in the first game but unleashed a flurry of attacking shots to win six consecutive points to take a 9-7 lead. They managed to hold on to that slender lead and closed the game with two straight points.
Both pairs started aggressively as the second game started and were level at 6-6. However, Chirag and Satwiksairaj displayed more agility on the court and demonstrated quicker reflexes to shock their higher-ranked opponents and went into the break with a four-point lead.
Just like in the first game, the Indians did not give Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik any quarter to mount a comeback and registered first-ever win over the Malaysians in eight meetings.
Chirag -Satwiksairaj 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.
Interestingly the Indian pair entered the Indonesia Open after suffering a first-round exit at the Singapore Open earlier this month.
“In the earlier eight matches against them, we would hold ourselves back, but today we stuck to the plan. 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,” commented Chirag Shetty.
“For the past few tournaments, I didn’t feel like dancing because I felt more hunger. We have won this tournament, and next week we have another. We go back and reset. But I am still happy with the way we played. It felt like a new day, playing new opponents. We were down 8-0 in head-to-head, but I wasn’t thinking much about it. I thought to myself this was a final and both teams were under pressure and if we play well we will win. We were under control when we got a strike in the first game. I said to myself it’s our day, don’t panic and just play like any other final,” Rankireddy said.
Earlier In the women’s singles final, China’s Chen Yufei won the battle of Olympic badminton champions. The Tokyo 2020 gold medallist defeated Rio 2016 champion Carolina Marin 21-18, 21-19 in an hour and four minutes to clinch the title.
In women’s doubles, fifth seeded Korean pair of Baek Ha Na and Lee So Hee defeated Japan’s Fukushima Yuki and Hirota Sayaka in straight games 22-20, 21-10.
Olympic silver medalists Zheng Siwei and Huang Yaqiong (China) won the mixed doubles beating Japan’s number two seeds Watanabe Yuta and Higashino Arisa 21-14, 21-11 in just 35 minutes.
Denmark’s Viktor Axelsen defeated Indonesian Anthony Ginting 21-14,21-13 to win the Men’s singles title.