Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty became the first Indians to win a Super 1000 badminton tournament after defeating Malaysian world champions Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik, against whom they had a 0-8 record before Sunday. The pair have been making a habit of registering a number of firsts for Indian badminton in the last few years and on Sunday, they beat the world champions 21-17, 21-18 in just 43 minutes to become the first ever Indians to lift a Super 1000 title.
The Indonesia Title now adds to their illustrious set of titles which includes a Commonwealth Games gold, a Thomas Cup gold and bronze medal in World Championships and wins in Super 300 (Syed Modi), Super 500 (Thailand and India Open) and Super 750 (French Open). Satwik and Chirag had made a sluggish start to the match with the world champions extending their lead from 3-0 to 7-3 before the former fought back to level it at 7-7. However, the Malaysians had a two-point advantage at first-game interval. The Asian champions bounced back again to pick up a lead for the first time in the match and never conceded, ending the first game at 21-17