The former world No. 1 duo of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty went down against world No. 3 Aaron Chia and Wooi Yik Soh in a three-game match in the semi-final of the Singapore Open S750. The Malaysian pair defeated Satwik and Chirag 19-21, 21-10, 21-18.
This is the second consecutive loss for the Indian pair against Chia and Soh. Their previous defeat came in the quarterfinals at the Paris Olympics 2024. Including this match, it was the 13th meeting between Satwik-Chirag and Chia-Soh, with the Malaysian duo dominating the rivalry. Out of 13 encounters, Chia and Soh have emerged victorious 10 times.
In the first game, Sat-Chi played well. Initially, both pairs were exchanging points in a close contest. At 8-8, the Indian pair took the lead, and although the game remained tightly contested, they didn’t allow Chia/Soh to get ahead and sealed the first game 21-19.
In the second game, the Malaysian duo didn’t give any chance to Sat-Chi. From the very first rally they dominated, quickly racing to a 5-0 lead. They maintained their momentum throughout the game and comfortably won the second game 21-10.
In the third and deciding game, the Malaysian pair once again began to build a lead after 6-6, eventually extending it to 20-11. From there, Sat-Chi made a spirited comeback, narrowing the gap to 18-20. But it wasn’t enough to turn the match around and Chia-Soh sealed the game 21-18 to book their spot in the final of the tournament.
Satwik and Chirag were the last standing contenders for India at the Singapore Open. With their loss in the semifinal, India’s hopes at the tournament came to an end. The Sat-Chi pair had dropped out of the top 25 rankings due to tournaments they missed caused by injuries. During the All England Open 2025 in March, Chirag suffered a back injury, after which the pair skipped multiple events.
They entered the Singapore Open as world No. 27 on their comeback trail and delivered a strong performance. Earlier on Friday, they defeated world No. 1 pair Goh-Izzuddin to reach the semifinal.
When asked about defeating the top-ranked pair Satwik said: “That was the goal. We weren’t too pleased when we saw No. 27. But it’s largely due to the break we had, some unfortunate situations and a few minor injuries after the Olympics. We couldn’t play many tournaments, but if you look at the ones we did participate in, we managed to reach the semifinals in almost all of them. That’s definitely a positive takeaway.”
“We take a lot of positives from this. Considering how little we’ve trained and the tough weeks and months we’ve had, both on and off the court, reaching the semifinal is more than we expected. Of course, once you’re deep into a tournament, you aim to win it. But looking back at everything we’ve been through recently, I feel this is a really good beginning,” Chirag told BWF media post-match.
Up next is the Indonesia Open Super 1000.
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