SHENZHEN(China): India’s shuttler duo of Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy lost to Republic of Korea’s Seo Seung Jae and Jin Yong in the semi-final of China Masters in Shenzhen.
Chirag and Satwik, ninth in the badminton rankings, went down against Seo Seung Jae, one-half of the reigning men’s doubles world champions, and his new partner Jin Yong, with a 21-18, 14-21, 21-16 scoreline in Saturday’s match that lasted one hour and 14 minutes. The loss also ended India’s campaign at the BWF Super 750 event.
Satwik-Chirag and the Korean shuttlers engaged in intense rallies at the start of the first game. The Indian duo surged to a 16-12 lead after the break but Seo Seung Jae and Jin Yong flipped the momentum with a five-point rally and stunned the Asian Games champions.
Competing in their first BWF tournament since the Paris 2024 Olympics, Satwik-Chirag found it tough to match Seo Seung Jae and Jin Yong’s pace early after the change of ends.
However, the former world No. 1 Indian players grew into the contest as the match progressed and built on their four-point lead at the break to win the second game.
The decider proved to be a battle of India’s aggressive play versus the South Korean defence. Despite their best efforts and longer rallies, the Indian badminton players slipped to a six-point deficit at 13-7 and could not claw their way back into the contest.
Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty reached the finals of the China Masters last year but lost the title to Liang Wei Keng and Wang Chang of the People’s Republic of China.
Earlier at the China Masters 2024, Satwik-Chirag defeated the world No. 3 Danish pair of Kim Astrup-Anders Skaarup Rasmussen in the quarter-finals and 15th-ranked Rasmus Kjaer and Frederik Sogaard in the round of 16.
The Indian duo started their campaign with a win over the world No. 10 Chinese Taipei duo of Lee Jhe-Huei and Yang Po-Hsuan.
In singles, Paris 2024 semi-finalist Lakshya Sen lost to world No. 3 Anders Antonsen of Denmark in the quarter-finals while two-time Olympic medallist PV Sindhu was knocked out in the round of 16. (ANI)