Badminton fraternity applauds Rankireddy-Shetty feat in Thailand Open

Badminton fraternity applauded Indian men's double pair Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty on their historic win in the Thailand Open on Sunday.

The Indian duo defeated Chinese pair Li Jun Hui and Liu Yu Chen 22-20, 18-21, 21-18 to win the Thailand Open title.

Rankireddy and Shetty became the only Indian pair to lift the men's doubles title of Thailand Open in history.

HS Pranoy who was knocked out of the tournament earlier tweeted, "Arrey nahi nahi ! Y do you guys always gets my prediction right @satwiksairaj @Shettychirag04 First of the many Super series !! #incredible #ThailandOpen."

Parupalli Kashyap, who also played the tournament and lost in the second round, took to Twitter and wrote, "Awesome win guys ! First-ever for Men's doubles from India #chiragsatwick #mensdoubleschampions #ThailandOpenSuper500."

"Woohooo! Killed it @Shettychirag04 @satwiksairaj. Historical win India is proud of you #thailandopensuper500," Ajay Jayaram tweeted.

"Great win for the Indian doubles...that too in the Olympic year!! Amazing performance boys #satwik #chirag Only the beginning," Jwala Gutta tweeted.

Union Youth Affairs and Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju's Office also congratulated the Indian pair on their win: "Indian men's badminton doubles duo of Satwik Reddy-Chirag Shetty beat world #2 Chinese duo Li Jun Hui-Li Yu Chen 21-19, 18-21, 21-18 at the #ToyotaThailandOpen Super 500 to win the biggest title of their career. @KirenRijiju congratulates the athletes on this fantastic win."

"@satwiksairaj @Shettychirag04 The dreams of more than a billion just came true today! Satwik & Chirag put India on the doubles map with their as well as India's biggest doubles title ever! Here's hoping this is just the start! #ThailandOpen2019 #IndiaOnTheRise #badminton," BAI Media tweeted.

Coincidentally on this day seven years ago, Saina Nehwal defeated China's Wang Xin at the Summer Olympics 2012 to bag first-ever individual medal for India in Olympics.