NEW DELHI: After months of struggling with injury which disturbed progress, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty are finally finding their rhythm, heading in the right direction.
This time at the $1 million Singapore Badminton Open where they reached the men’s doubles final on Saturday, their second successive summit clash after finishing runners-up at the Thailand Open two weeks back.
To top it, the fourth seeds did what they had never done before, topple the reigning world, Asian and All England champions Kim Won Ho and Seo Seung Jae of South Korea, beating the top seeds 21-19, 21-18 in 52 minutes. It was their first win in three meetings against the world No.1 pairing.
The win was extra special considering that the world No.4 combine snapped the 34-match winning streak of Kim and Seo, whose last defeat came at the Denmark Open second round last October. Since then, the reigning world champions had won six successive finals including the year-ending BWF World Tour Finals, All England Open and Asian Championships.
“The zest to win (helped us win today). The way we played, even when we were down, we kept backing each other and knew if we stick to our plan, eventually they will crack at some point and points will come. We had that belief and it worked well for us,” said Shetty.
“We are heading in the right direction. Improvement is an ongoing process. You’ll never be perfect. There’s always room for improvement and we keep pushing ourselves. We are on the right track and we keep going.”
The final against Indonesian third seeds Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Shohibul Fikri is a significant moment in their attempt to return to the top. Though Rankireddy and Shetty have regularly reached the business end of tournaments — including three finals — they are yet to win a title since they clinched the Thailand Open in May 2024.
It won’t be easy against world No.3 Alfian and Fikri, who have a 2-1 record against the Indians and are also chasing their first title since July 2025.
At the Super 750 tournament on Saturday, Rankireddy and Shetty fought back after conceding early leads in both games. They trailed 8-13 and 13-17 in the opener but held their nerves under pressure to clinch the game.
The second game also saw the Indians trailing 11-14 before they clinched six straight points to take a 17-14 lead and then maintain that advantage to reach the finals.
“We knew that if we have to beat them, we have to be steady. They have the strongest defence in the circuit by far. (We knew) the normal rallies will be okay, we’ll be better than them. But when the rallies get longer, they are quite strong in their defence,” said Shetty.
“So, we needed to be calm and steady when attacking. A couple of points in the second game maybe where we were a little out of rhythm, but throughout the match we were quite calm when attacking. That worked well for us.”
The challenge of mixed doubles pair Dhruv Kapila and Tanisha Crasto ended in the semi-finals after a 16-21, 21-17, 13-21 loss to Japan’s Yuichi Shimogami and Sayaka Hobara.
