PARIS: The World No. 1 badminton duo of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty called the BWF French Open final victory at Paris a sweet one as they played really good badminton at this venue.
Satwiksairaj-Chirag defeated Chinese Taipei’s Lee Jhe-Huei and Yang Po-Hsuan 21-11, 21-17 on Sunday.
After clinching the title, Satwik opened up on his unique dance celebration which both the players performed. The ace shuttler asserted that they have started celebrating like this from the Thomas Cup.
“It all started from Thomas Cup and it became a habit and it has been a long time since we danced. It is after fourth finals. We just wanted to go and have fun and let them earn points and the match. We wanted to give our 100 percent and enjoy. Even Mathias (Boe) kept telling us to have fun and we got back our rhythm and the momentum changed,” Satwik said after the match.
Further, Chirag spoke about their opponents Taipei’s Lee Jhe-Huei and Yang Po-Hsuan. He admitted that although their rankings are not that high they are good players and they didn’t take them lightly during the whole game.
“They had some good weeks, they have beaten some good oppositions, and we knew we can’t take them lightly, their ranking might not be high but they have always been a formidable game. So we are happy that we could take that first game and after initial jittery take the second as well,” Chirag asserted.
In the end, Chirag talked about their participation in the upcoming edition of the Paris Olympics 2024, which will be played in the same venue as the French Open 2024.
“It feels really sweet. Paris has always been special for us and we have always played good badminton here and it has been a second home for us. It is a test venue for the Olympics but that is still some months away. I would be lying if I said that I am not enjoying that (winning at the Olympic venue) but we won this final. There is another tournament next week, so looking forward to that,” Chirag stated.
Coming to the match, from the start, the Indian pair of Chirag and Satwiksairaj dominated Chinese Taipei’s Lee-Yang. In the first set, Chirag-Satwiksairaj clinched a 21-11 win over their opponents to take an early advantage.
However, Lee-Yang gave a good fight in the second set against the Indian pair. But Chirag-Satwiksairaj were strong enough to hold the pressure and beat their opponents 21-17 in the second set to win the final match.
The victory also marked Satwik and Chirag’s second French Open title.
Earlier in the semi-final round, Rankireddy and Chirag beat the current world champions Kang Minhyuk and Seo Seungjae of South Korea 21-13, 21-16 in two straight games to reach their third French Open final.
The 2022 French Open champions faced a great challenge from the South Koreans in the first game, with scores once level at 5-5. From then on, Satwiksairaj and Chirag won six points on the trot and never looked back from there, as per Olympics.com.
After a convincing win in the first game, Satwiksairaj and Chirag soon gained an upper hand in the second game as well. Though Kang and Seo tried to fight back, the early lead by the Indians helped them win the match in 40 minutes. (ANI)