India’s top men’s doubles badminton pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty registered their second straight BWF World Tour Finals 2025 Group B win in Hangzhou, People’s Republic of China, on Thursday.
Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, third in the badminton rankings, beat the world No. 8 Indonesian pair of Fajar Alfian-Muhammad Shohibul Fikri 21-11, 16-21, 21-11 in 60 minutes to strengthen their push for a place in the semi-finals.
Despite back-to-back victories, Satwik and Chirag, who were crowned the Asian Games champions in the same city two years ago, are yet to seal qualification for the knockout stage, with three of the four pairs in Group B still in contention. The Indonesian duo, however, have been eliminated after suffering two defeats.
Paris 2024 silver medallists Liang Wei Keng and Wang Chang of China, beaten by Sat-Chi on Wednesday, along with two-time Olympic medallists Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik of Malaysia – Sat-Chi’s opponents on Friday – are still in the semis race.
The top two teams from each group (A-B) will make the semi-finals.
The opening game between Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty and Fajar Alfian-Muhammad Shohibul Fikri was a one-sided affair, with the Indian badminton players bursting out of the blocks to race to a 6-0 lead.
Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Shohibul Fikri briefly threatened a comeback, closing the gap to 13-9, but the early advantage proved decisive. From 15-10, the Indians reeled off five straight points to surge to 20-10 and sealed the game with ease.
The Indonesians responded strongly in the second game. Locked at 3-3 early on, they surged ahead with five straight points to open up an 8-3 lead.
The Indian pair fought back to draw level at 11-all and again at 12-12 but the Indonesians held firm.
A three-point burst put Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Shohibul Fikri back in front at 15-12, and from there they protected their slim cushion before seizing control late in the game to level the match and force a decider.
Stung by the loss of the second game, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty hit back in the decider. They built a commanding seven-point cushion at the mid-game interval and never looked back despite the change of ends.
The win also marked Satwik and Chirag’s first victory over the Indonesian pair, having lost their only previous meeting at the Australian Open earlier this year.
Now in its eighth edition, the BWF World Tour Finals is the culmination of the badminton season and will conclude this year’s BWF World Tour.
Two-time Olympic medallist PV Sindhu, who won the women’s singles title in 2018, is the only Indian to have ever won at the BWF World Tour Finals.
