The Indian men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty defeated Indonesian top seeds Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Rian Ardianto in the final of the Korea Open 2023 badminton tournament at the Jinnam Stadium on Sunday. Satwiksairaj and Chirag won 17-21, 21-13, 21-14 in just over an hour to win their third BWF World Tour Super 500 title.
The Indian duo has already won the Swiss and Indonesia Open titles on the 2023 BWF World Tour. In the final, they will face Indonesian top seeds Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Rian Ardianto on Sunday. After a neck-to-neck start to the match, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, the world No. 3 and third seeds at the BWF Super 500 tournament, gained the upper hand in the first game after winning five back-to-back points to make the score 14-8 from 9-8.
Since pairing up, Satwik and Chirag have won multiple titles, including Commonwealth Games gold, Thomas Cup gold, bronze medal in World Championships and wins in Super 300 (Syed Modi and Swiss Open), Super 500 (Thailand and India Open), Super 750 (French Open) and Indonesia Open Super 1000.
The Indian pair had beaten China’s Liang Wie Keng and Wang Chang 21-15, 24-22 in the semifinals, their first-ever win over the Chinese world No. 2 duo in three meetings. Liang Weikeng and Wang Chang got the better of the Indians at the All England Open and Malaysia Open, earlier this year.
Satwiksairaj and Chirag had entered the semifinals with a straight game win over Japan’s Takuro Hoki and Yugo Kobayashi with the world No.3 Indian combination, took just 40 minutes to get the better of the fifth seeded Japanese pair 21-14 21-17. They had defeated Takuro Hoki and Yugo Kobayashi 21-14, 21-17 as well as Wei Keng Liang and Chang Wang 21-15, 24-22 in the first two rounds.
— BAI Media (@BAI_Media) July 23, 2023
Satwik and Chirag were the only Indians left in the final stages of the tournament after the premature exits of PV Sindhu, HS Prannoy, Kidambi Srikanth among others. Commonwealth Games gold medalist duo of Satwik and Chirag have already won the Swiss and Indonesia Open titles on the 2023 BWF World Tour.
This was the Indian duo’s third appearance in a BWF Super 500 tournament having won in the previous two such appearances at the 2019 Thailand Open and 2022 India Open. It was also their third final of the year.
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