KOMPAS.com – The Indian pair Satwiksairaj Rankireddy/Chirag Shetty surprised everyone by qualifying for the 2021 BWF World Tour Finals on 1-5 December 2021.
Rankireddy/Shetty’s victory over Goh Sze Fei/Nur Izzuddin in the quarter-finals of the Indonesia Open 2021 ensured their place in this year’s closing tournament.
The result made Satwiksairaj Rankiredd and Chirag Shetty the first Indian men’s doubles pair to qualify for the BWF World Tour Finals.
They themselves lost 16-21, 18-21 to Marcus Fernaldi Gideon and Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo in the semifinals of the Indonesian Open 2021.
Rankireddy/Shetty will now face the other seven best men’s doubles players in the world.
Also read: Schedule for BWF World Tour Finals 2021, Marcus/Kevin Vs Defending Champion
Uniquely, they themselves admitted that they did not expect to qualify for the tournament later this year.
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“I have to call the airline to change my flight!” said Satwiksairaj as quoted from the official BWF website.
“It’s a great feeling to qualify for this event. Now, we can’t wait to face it.”
The draw puts Rankireddy/Shetty into Group A, along with world number one pair Marcus/Kevin, as well as Kim Astrup. Anders Skaarup Rasmussen, as well as Olympic gold medal winners from Taiwan Lee Yang/Wang Chi-Lin.
Regarding the draw, the Indian couple feels confident and optimistic.
“The draw results are similar to the Tokyo Olympics,” said Rankireddy again.
Also read: Lakshya Sen, Youngest Men’s Singles at BWF World Tour Finals 2021
“We are obviously in good form, we have been playing in the same hall for the last two weeks so we know the conditions.”
“We are ready to give our best and our target is to get out of the group.”
In addition to the Indonesian Open 2021, Rankireddy/Shetty also faced Marcus/Kevin in the group phase of the 2020 Olympics.
At that time, Marcus/Kevin won 21-13, 21-12.
Rankireddy/Shetty also faced Yang/Chi-lin in the same group at that time.
The Indian pair managed to win 21-16, 16-21, 27-25 against the Taiwanese pair who eventually came out as winners of the Olympic gold medal.
The BWF World Tour Finals match system is different from other BWF World Tour tournaments.
The BWF World Tour Finals begins with the group phase through a round robin system and the top two positions from the two groups qualify for the knockout phase (semifinals).
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