Satwik-Chirag scale new heights, beat top seeds to win Korea Open title

Indian Men’s Doubles pairing of Satwiksairaj Ranbkireddy and Chirag Shetty more commonly known as Sat-Chi is on a roll as they beat the world number one Doubles pair of Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Rian Ardianto of Indonesia in three-sets- 17-21, 21-13 and 21-14 to be crowned as the champions of Korea Open Super 500 badminton tournament. 

This is the first time in history that an Indian Men’s Doubles pairing has won more than two World Tour titles in a single year. This victory came after the duo’s historic Indonesia Open win in June, which was the first Super 1000 win by any Indian shuttler ever.

Happy with win

The Indian duo were extremely happy with this win. In an interaction with the Badminton Association of India (BAI) after the victory, Chirag said, “The way we played today in the final. It didn’t start that well. But [I was] happy that we could get that second game and carry the momentum into the third one and keep it till the very end.”

“Yeah, we are extremely happy to get the second title after the Indonesia Open,” the top-court maestro added.

Back-court beast Satwik was more focused on the challenge ahead which is the Japan Open Super 750.  The Indian duo has already won the  Super 300, 500 and 1000 tournaments on the tour this year and thus only a Super 750 tournament remains to complete the quartet that might also take them to the number one position in the world. 

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Currently, Sat-Chi is ranked third in the world but is likely to move to the second position in the updated ranking which will be released on Tuesday, July 25. 

 

“It has been a very good week for us. We played really amazing badminton throughout the week. [I am] happy with the performance today. We want to continue the same,” said Satwik, who also achieved the Guinness world record for the fastest smash during the Korea Open. 
 

“Next week we have a tournament again (Japan Open). We would now go back, rest and focus again. Thank you for all the support and love,” Rankireddy added.

Beating World number five, two and one on the way to the title

It was not an easy win for the Indians. They faced the world number five Japanese pair of Hakuro Toki and Yogo Kobayashi in the quarterfinal, the world number two Chinese pair of Liang Wei Keng and Chang Wang  in the semi-final and the world number one Alfian and Ardianto in the final before they could hold the Korea Open trophy in their arms. 

The Indians were amazing in all the matches as they did not let any of the ties go the the third set except the final where they registered a remarkable come-from-behind victory. 

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What happened in the final match of Korea Open 2023?

Before the start of the match, the Indian pair had a 2-2 head-to-head record against Asian Games silver medallists Alfian and Ardianto. But the two victories for the Indians were recent while the Indonesians had won a long time back. 

However, the Indian pair looked under pressure and suddenly found themselves trailing 10-19 in the first game before winning six points back-to-back to earn some respectability. However, the Indian resistance didn’t last long and the set was won by the world number one pair 21-17. 

Sat-Chi improved upon their unforced errors and bettered their back-court game to take an 11-8 lead in the second game interval before winning the game 21-13. In the decider, the Indians once again led 11-8 at the interval and faced no problems in taking the game 21-14 and thereby winning the match.

Major titles won by Sat-Chi since pairing up together 

Commonwealth Games 2022- Gold 

Thomas Cup 2022- Gold

World Championships 2022- Bronze 

Badminton Asia Championship 2023- Gold

World Tour titles

Super 300- Swiss Open (2023)

Super 500- Thailand Open (2019), India Open (2022) and Korea Open (2023)

Super 750- French Open (2022)

Super 1000- Indonesia Open (2023)

*With inputs from PTI