Indonesia Open 2023: Satwiksairaj, Chirag become 1st Indian pair to win doubles title in Super 1000 event

Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty scripted history on Sunday, June 18 by becoming the first Indian doubles pair to win a title at a Badminton Super 1000 event in Jakarta.

The World No. 6 pair, who won a gold medal at the Commonwealth Games and bronze at the World Championships last year, defeated Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yika of Malaysia in a stunning 2-game battle in Jakarta.

In fact, Satwiksairaj and Chirag’s victory in the Indonesia Open is unprecedented, as they are the first Indian doubles pair to win the title, while Saina Nehwal (2010, 2012) and Kidambi Srikanth (2017) previously won the singles title in Jakarta.

SATWIK, CHIRAG SCRIPT HISTORY

Satwik and Chirag Shetty won the men’s doubles final of the Indonesian Open in Jakarta on Sunday, defeating Malaysia’s Aaron Chia and Wooi Yik Soh 21-17, 21-18. The Indians got off to a slow start but quickly rallied to win the match in straight games. The Indian duo also made history by winning their first Super 1000 title.

The current World Champions lost the final to the Indians, who are also Asian Champions, in just 43 minutes. The Indians stumbled at the start of the first game, but they quickly picked up the pace and led 11-9 at the mid-game break. The second game, on the other hand, began with the Indians dominating the proceedings. Though the Malaysian couple came close near the end, they were unable to withstand the pressure and were defeated.

Their aggressive play continued to force errors from their opponents, who were also nervous having never won a BWF World Tour title before. Once the Indians got into a rhythm, they pushed the pace of play and went into the halftime break with a 2-point lead. Their attack continued to pay off in the second half of the game, and they converted their first game point to take the lead.

“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 amazing week for us. We played amazing badminton today. We didn’t have good head-to-head record against them, so wanted to play one point at a time and it fetched the result for us,” said Satwiksairaj after the match.

The BWF World Tour is divided into six levels, which are as follows: World Tour Finals, four Super 1000, six Super 750, seven Super 500, and eleven Super 300. The BWF Tour Super 100 level is another tournament category that awards ranking points. Each of these tournaments has a unique set of ranking points and prize money. The Super 1000 level has the most points and the largest prize pool.

SATWIK-CHIRAG’s DECORATED TROPHY CABINET

This victory at the Indonesia Open adds to the Indian duo’s already impressive resume, which includes a gold medal at the Commonwealth Games, a gold medal at the Thomas Cup, a bronze medal at the World Championships, and a bronze medal at the Asian Games.

Only the Olympic medal is now missing in the decorated trophy cabinet of Satwik and Chirag, who have also won titles at all levels on the BWF tour – from 300 to 1000. Satwik-Chirg have won a men’s doubles trophy at each of these segments – Super 1000 (2023 Indonesia Open), Super 750 (2019 French Open), Super 500 (2022 India Open), Super 300 (2023 Swiss Open), and Super 100 (2018 Hyderabad Open)

The World No. 6 pair that won the Badminton Asia Championship gold medal earlier this year was going through a lean patch, losing in the first round of the Singapore Open and bowing out in the second round of the Thailand Open after their ordinary outings in the Sudirman Cup. However, they have bounced back strong with a sensational victory at the Istora, beating their nemesis Aaron Chia and Soh Wooh Yik for the first time in 9 meetings on the tour.