Satwik/Chirag were on fire as they hammered former world champions Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik of Malaysia 21-18, 21-14 in 45 minutes.
Braving severe cold conditions prevailing in the Capital, those who made it to the India Open badminton on Saturday night left the Jadhav stadium after 11 pm after a heart-warming performance from the new poster boys of Indian badminton – Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy.
Satwik/Chirag produced a fighting performance against fourth-seeded Malaysians Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik, to whom they lost eight successive times before the next two. The 21-18, 21-14 victory made it a hat-trick of triumph. This will be the second final in eight days for the Indians after being the finalist in the Malaysia Open.
Read more: Bitter news for Satwik/Chirag after the duo failed to qualify for BWF World Tour Finals
The Asian Games gold medallists were on fire as they hammered old rivals and former world champions Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik of Malaysia 21-18, 21-14 in 45 minutes. In the final of the $850,000 event — they won here two years ago — they will face Korea’s Kang Min-hyuk and Seo Seung-jae.
“It was a good win today. Going into the match, we knew it would be a tough game because we have always had some close games. Even this time, it was quite close; until 17-all it was anybody’s game. We could have been a little calmer probably. Luckily in the end we stayed calm and won that,” said Chirag.
Read more: Satwik and Chirag’s quest for the golden medal at Paris 2024
Interestingly, a few years ago the Indian duo were no match for the Malaysian fourth seed. Satwik/Chirag had lost eight consecutive matches from 2017 to last year. But 2023 was a year that saw the world-beating Indian combine turn the tables on most of their opponents, including Aaron and Soh. With Saturday’s win, Satwik and Chirag improved their record to 3-8 against the 2022 world champions by earning three successive victories against the world No.4 pairing.
The first game was neck-and-neck between the two pairs as neither gave the other a leeway of more than two points until 17-all. From there, the second-seeded Indians turned up the heat by hammering down half-smashes up front the easily close the game. The fightback demoralised Aaron and Chia. The shuttles were flying in fast exchanges as they became a contest of reflexes. In the heat of the moment, Aaron made a couple of service faults.
Satwik and Chirag kept the heat on the Malaysians to win six straight points from 15-14 to the delight of the crowd. Subsequently, Chirag leapt onto Satwik’s lap for more raucous cheering. Sunday’s final against reigning world champions Kang Min-hyuk and Seo Seung-jae is expected to be a cracker. Though the Indian pairing has a favourable 4-1 record against the South Koreans, including a Malaysian Open semi-final victory last week, Kang and Seo have been in brilliant form of late, reaching five finals in 2023, winning four.
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