Paris: India’s World No.1 doubles pair Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty on Sunday claimed their first title of 2024, by winning the men’s doubles title in the French Open badminton championship. In the final, Satwik and Chirag defeated Lee Jhe-Hui and Po-Hsuan Yang of Chinese Taipei 21-11, 21-17 in the 37-minute encounter played at Arena Porte de la Chapelle in the French capital.
In the first game of the final, Chirag and Satwik broke from 4-4 to win the next five points and then maintained their upper hand, extending their 11-6 and lead to 17-10 before going on to win the game 21-11 by converting the second game point.
The second game was closely fought as the two pairs went neck-and-neck after Satwik and Chirag had caught up with the Chinese Taipei 5-5 after conceding a 1-4 lead. The Chinese Taipei pair maintained their edge till 14-14. The Indian pair then surged ahead to open up a three-point lead before eventually winning the final.
On Saturday night, top seeds and former men’s doubles champions Satwik and Chirag reached the BWF Super 750 French Open final for the third time.
The world no.1 Indian pair registered a dominating win over reigning world champions Kang Minhyuk and Seo Seungjae of Korea 21-13, 21-16 in the semifinal to make their third successive final of the 2024 season.
The Indian pair previously made it to the final of the Malaysia Open at the start of the season but were defeated by the then-top-ranked Chinese duo of Liang Wei Keng and Wang Chang. In the India Open final, Chirag-Satwik suffered a loss against the world champions.
Anurag Thakur praises the duo
Sports minister Anurag Thakur praised the duo, saying: “???-??? ??????? ?????? ???? ????????? ??? ??? ??? ????”.
“Hats off to the duo that defines camaraderie and is the powerhouse of attacks, defence and confidence at its finest
“Winning their 2nd #BWFSuper750 title without dropping a game at #FrenchOpen2024 and with 3 consecutive final appearances at the BWF Tour in 2024, ??’s very own history scripting duo- @satwiksairaj and @Shettychirag04 will now become the first-ever Indian(s) to achieve the feat of 100,000 points in the BWF Rankings!” Anurag Thakur said in his post on social media.
–IANS