In their first match of the BWF World Tour Finals 2025, in Hangzhou, China, Indian men’s doubles pair Satwik Sairajrankireddy and Chirag Shetty defeated their arch-rivals Liang Keng and Wang Chang of China by 2-1 (12-21, 22-20, 21-14). This was a Group B match.
For the former world No.1 and current 3rd-ranked pair in the world in men’s doubles, Satwik and Chirag, this was their second appearance in the BWF World Tour Finals after 2021.
Ahead of the match, the build-up was fairly skewed towards the Chinese pair, having won seven out of the ten matches these two pairs have faced each other.
Satwik and Chirag started on the back foot as constant smashes kept them pushing and the first match ended in 21-12 in favour of the Paris 2024 Olympics silver medallists.
However, the Indian pair bounced back when it needed the most. In the second game, Sat-Chi looked much sharper as they kept attacking from the beginning. At 12-9 in favour of the Indians, China kept pushing and it was down to the last point. Ultimately, the final two points were won and they won 22-20.
It was their game to lose as Sat-Chi dominated from the beginning. They kept the momentum going as the Chinese pair was out of answers to the repeated smashes. At 19-13, the Indians could smell victory, and the game finished 21-14.
In the other match in Group B, the Malaysian pair, Chia and Soh, won 2-1 against the Indonesians, Alfian and Fikri.
On Thursday, Satwik and Chirag will face Alfian and Fikri in their second group stage game.
Speaking about the match to BWF media, they said: “In the first game we didn’t start that well. We carried it to them actually. They kept putting a lot of pressure on us and didn’t really let us get into the game.
“But I think in the second game onwards we knew we wanted to start on a good note, be as aggressive as possible and that’s what we did. I’m happy that we were able to convert that into a win.”
Speaking of aggression and the comeback, the Indian pair said: “No matter what, we try to play an aggressive game. But in the first game we couldn’t get the rhythm. It’s been a while since we played, to get that rhythm and playing with the top players, it was not easy in the first set.”
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