‘Too premature’: BAI rejects reports about appointing foreign coaches
The media reports claimed that BAI appointed Irwansyah as the new singles coach for the men and women while Tan Him Ker was roped in as the doubles coach for both categories.
World no 3 pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty clinched the Thailand Open badminton doubles title outplaying China’s Chen Bo Yang and Liu Yi in the final on Sunday.
Playing at the Nimibutr Stadium in Bangkok, the Indians beat their 29th-ranked opponents 21-15, 21-15 in 36 minutes.
This was the second title of the 2024 badminton season for Chirag and Satwik and the second Thailand Open title.
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They lost the Malaysia Open and India Open finals earlier this year before winning the French Open in March.
The Indians first Super 500 title on the BWF World Tour came at the Thailand Open in 2019. The 2024 Thailand Open final marked the Indian duo’s fifth appearance in a BWF Super 500 summit clash and they emerged victorious in all of them.
“Thailand Open has been a special tournament for us as we won our first Super 500 crown here and have won many more tournaments thereafter,” Satwiksairaj Rankireddy said after winning the title. “We are hoping that this victory will start another winning run for us.”
With 9200 ranking points from the tournament, the Indian badminton players are expected to regain the world No. 1 rank next week.
Overall, this was Satwik and Chirag’s eighth title on the BWF World Tour. The Indians bagged the Swiss Open, the Indonesia Open and the Korea Open last year.
In the earlier rounds at the Thailand Open the Asian Games champions defeated Malaysia’s Tan Wee Kiong and Nur Mohd Azriyn Ayub in their opener and China’s Xie Hao Nan and Zeng Wei Han in the second round.
Chirag and Satwik beat Malaysia’s Arif Junaidi and Yap Roy King in the quarter-finals and registered a victory over Chinese Taipei’s Ming Che Lu and Tang Kai Wei in the semis. All wins for the Indian pair came in straight games.
The next assignment for top-tier Indian badminton players will be the Malaysia Masters BWF Super 500 tournament starting on Tuesday.
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