Hangzhou [China], October 7 : The star men's doubles badminton duo of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty continue to make India proud. With their gold medal at the Asian Games, they have not become the country's first-ever gold medalists in badminton in the competition's history and raised expectations of millions ahead of next year's Paris Olympics.
Satwiksairaj and Chirag are on a purple patch, having won big at many tournaments and championships since 2022. Here is a look:
*Badminton World Federation (BWF World Tour titles):
Since 2022, the duo has won five BWF World Tour titles. It started with an Indian Open title win in January 2022 in which they defeated Indonesia's Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan 21-16, 26-24. They followed it with the French Open later that year.
In 2023, they won the Swiss Open, Indonesia Open and Korea Open. The Indonesia Open title win was special as they defeated the second-seeded Malaysian pair of Aaron Chia and Wooi Yik Soh 21-17, 21-18 to claim India's first-ever BWF Super 1000 World Tour title in the final. Chia and Soh were world champions.
*Thomas Cup (2022)
They were also the part of historic Thomas Cup win for India. The world's top men's team championship held since 1949 saw India capture the trophy for the first time. India defeated Indonesia, the most successful team in tournament history with 14 titles in the final 3-0.
*Commonwealth Games (2022)
Satwiksairaj and Chirag brought home Commonwealth Games gold in men's doubles category at Birmingham, beating the local pair of Ben Lane and Sean Vardy in two games straight. They were also part of the mixed team competition in which they won silver.
*BWF World Championships (2022)
Just days after their heroics in Birminham at CWG, the duo captured a bronze medal at the World Championships in Dubai. They became India's first-ever men's doubles medalist at the event.
*Badminton Asia Championships (2023)
'Sat-Chi', as the duo is popularly known, captured the Asian Championships gold, defeating Malaysia's Ong Yew Sin and Teo Ee Yi in the final 16-21, 21-17, 21-19 in April this year. They became the first men's doubles pair to win gold at the event.
*Asian Games (2023)
There was wide expectation from 'Sat-Chi' at the Asian Games and they did not disappoint. They defeated South Korea's Choi Sol-gyu and Kim Won-ho 21-18, 21-16 in gold medal match.
They were also the part of men's team which won a silver, helping India win its first-ever medal in badminton team events in Asian Games history.
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