Dubai: India’s top men’s doubles pair Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty won gold after beating the Malaysian pair of Ong Yew Sin and Teo Ee Yi 16-21, 21-17, 21-19 in the final at the Badminton Asia Championships in Dubai on Sunday.
Satwik-Chirag had become the first Indian duo since Dinesh Khanna in singles in 1965 to enter the final of the continental badminton event. The Indian duo had themselves assured a medal after 52 years in the men’s doubles category when they got the better of Indonesia’s experienced duo Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan in straight games 21-11, 21-12 in the quarterfinals.
Satwik and Chirag bagged the second gold for India in this mega event. Apart from the gold won by Dinesh Khanna, India has won 17 bronze medals in various categories in the Badminton Asia Championships since 1962. Satwik and Chirag, who won the bronze medal in Men’s Doubles at the 2022 World Championships in Tokyo, have claimed two bronze medals in the Asian Team Championships (2016, 2020).
The gold medal at the Asian Badminton Championships is the biggest medal in their career. The Indian duo have won five titles on the BWF World Tour and have twice finished runners-up.
India has thus far won only one gold in the Asian Championships since it was initiated in 1962 — the gold was won by Dinesh Khanna in men’s singles in 1965.
The Indian duo had sealed a spot in the summit clash after their opponents, the Tokyo Olympic champions Chinese Taipei’s Lee Yang and Wang Chi-lin, retired midway through the second game of their semifinal clash. The 22-year-old Satwiksairaj Rankireddy from Amalapuram in Andhra Pradesh and the 25-year-old Mumbai-born Chirag Shetty had won the first game 21-18 and were going neck-and-neck with their Chinese Taipei opponents at 13-14 when Lee Yang and Wang Chi-lin withdrew, giving them a walkover.
The Indian duo opened the tournament with a win over the Malaysian team of Tan Kian Meng and Tan Wee Kiong 21-14, 21-17. They then got the better of the South Korean unit of Jin Yong and Na Sung Seung 21-13, 21-11 in the round of 16. India’s top doubles duo faced Indonesians Mohammed Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan in the quarters, who they managed to brush aside 21-11, 21-12.
