In a shocking news it is revealed that star duo of Satwik and Chirag will not be part of the season-ending BWF World Tour Finals.
It’s frustrating year-end news for India’s number 1 men’s doubles duo of Satwik and Chirag after a sublime year. The duo won the Asian Games gold medal in a season that also saw them rise to the top of the BWF World Rankings. On the other hand, the Indian pairing also won the Swiss Open, Indonesia Open and Korea Open amongst a plethora of Super 1000 and Super 500 events.
The Asian Games medal will, however, be the prized medal in the season calendar. It was India’s first gold in the continental showpiece extravaganza. Overall the Indian team reached the final in four tournaments across the year including the China Masters in Shenzhen where they finished second best. Despite all these staggering achievements in 2023, Satwik and Chirag will not be part of the season-ending BWF World Tour Finals in Hangzhou. The tournament is slated to be played between 13-17 December and marks the end of the calendar year.
The cutoff point of qualification was 21st November. At that time Satwik and Chirag were 13th in the list with 69,240 points. On the other hand, the South Korean pairing of Kang Min Hyuk and Seo Seung Jae were on the top with 91,900 points. This was despite the Indian team being fifth in the world at the time and the Koreans were placed sixth.
The qualification criteria take into consideration the 14 best tournaments over the past year. Meanwhile, the overall rankings count the best 10 tournaments in the same period.
As a result, Satwik and Chirag are tenth in the BWF World Tour Rankings as of 28 November while being World No. 2 as per the rolling rankings. Now, the China Masters happened to be the Indian team’s 14th tournament in the 52-week cycle. It means their weaker performances can be removed. One more salient point that is worth noting is that the Asian Games and Badminton Asia Championships have not been included in this calculation. According to the BWF, the Asian Games is a continental event and does not fall under the jurisdiction of the World Federation.
The BWF World Tour Finals is the grand finale of the year-long badminton roster which culminates into a grand finale. It’s a big-ticket event that features the international circuit’s eight best players across the season. It includes singles (men’s and women’s) and doubles (men’s, women’s and mixed) categories.
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