The Indian badminton duo of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty scripted history on Sunday by becoming the first men’s doubles pair from the country to win a Super 1000 event. They clinched the Indonesia Open title by defeating Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yika of Malaysia in straight games 21-17, 21-18 in the final.
The World No. 6 pair, who had won a gold medal at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games and a bronze at the world championships last year, dominated the match with their aggressive and fast-paced game. They did not allow their opponents to settle down and kept them under pressure throughout the 40-minute encounter.
This was the first time that Satwik and Chirag had beaten Aaron and Soh in 11 attempts. They also became the first Indian doubles pair to win the set of Super 100, Super 300, Super 500, Super 750 and Super 1000 events. They had previously won the India Open, French Open, Thailand Open and Hyderabad Open.
The victory also marked India’s continued success at the Indonesia Open, with Saina Nehwal (2010, 2012) and Kidambi Srikanth (2017) having won the singles titles in the past. Satwik and Chirag also joined Dinesh Khanna as the only Indians to win the Badminton Asia Championships, which they achieved earlier this year.
The Indian pair expressed their delight after the historic win and thanked the crowd for their support. “We had prepared very well for this event. We knew the crowd will be supporting us. They have supported us all week. This has been an amazing week for us. We played amazing badminton today. We didn’t have a good head-to-head record against them, so we wanted to play one point at a time and it fetched the result for us,” said Satwiksairaj.
Satwik and Chirag will now look to carry their form into the upcoming tournaments, including the World Tour Finals and the Sudirman Cup. They will also aim to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics next year and make India proud on the biggest stage.