India’s dynamic duo of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty wrote history by winning the men’s doubles title at the Indonesia Open here on Sunday, becoming the first pair from the country to claim a Super 1000 event. The Indians outwitted the Malaysian world champion duo of Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik 21-17, 21-18, in an intense contest that lasted 43 minutes.
“We had prepared very well for this event. We knew the crowd would be supporting us. They have supported us all week. This has been an amazing week for us. We played amazing badminton today. We didn’t have a good head-to-head record against them, so we wanted to play one point at a time, and it fetched the result for us,” said Satwiksairaj after the match.
Satwiksairaj and Chirag gained initiative midway through the first game, and they have never really given a sniff to their fancied opponents since then. In the second game as well, the Indian pair did not allow their opponents to break free, and a four-point streak kept them ahead of the curve. The Indians seemed to be in for a facile victory when the Malaysians nullified four match points to come within sniffing distance of their opponents. However, Satwiksairaj and Chirag, the world No. 6 pair, who won a gold medal at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games and bronze at the world championships last year, could not be denied when the score read 20-18 in their favour, and this time they converted the match point to script a magnificent win. The magnitude of the result can be gauged from the fact that this was the first time Satwiksairaj and Chirag beat Aaron and Soh in 11 attempts. In fact, the triumph of Satwiksairaj and Chirag in the Indonesia Open is quite unparalleled, as they are the first Indian doubles pair to land the title, while Saina Nehwal (2010, 2012) and Kidambi Srikanth (2017) had earlier bagged the singles crown in Jakarta.
The Indian pair is the first doubles team from the country to clinch a Super 1000 title, while they also stand as the first ones to win the set of S100, S300, S500, S750, and S1000 events from the country. The Indians, who were also Asian champions, defeated the current world champions in less than an hour. Chirag was outstanding at the net with his speedy interceptions and defence, and he was one of the main reasons behind the Indian pair pulling off the match.
This triumph at the Indonesia Open adds to the Indian duo’s already impressive collection of titles, which includes a gold medal at the Commonwealth Games, a gold medal at the Thomas Cup, a bronze medal at the World Championships, and wins at the Super 300 (Syed Modi), Super 500 (Thailand and India Open), and Super 750 (French Open) tournaments.
