Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty clinched the French Open badminton title with a dominant win over Chinese Taipei’s Lee Jhe-Huei and Yang Po-Hsuan in the men’s doubles final on Sunday. The star India pair produced a clinical performance to win the second French Open title. It was the duo’s third consecutive final of the year and the third time in this tournament and they finished it in the best way possible with a massive triumph.
With a 21-11, 21-17 triumph over Lee and Yang, Satwik-Chirag won their first title of the season. The high-octane match lasted for 37 minutes and at the final whistle, the duo were thrilled to regain the Super 750 tournament title in Paris which they last won in 2022.
From the start, the Indian pair dominated Chinese Taipei’s Lee-Yang. Chirag-Satwiksairaj clinched the first game 21-11 to take an early advantage.
However, Lee-Yang gave a good fight in the second game against the Indian pair. But Chirag-Satwiksairaj were strong enough to hold the pressure and beat their opponents 21-17 in the second set to win the final match.
The world number 1 men’s doubles pair had finished second best at Malaysia Super 1000, India Super 750 this year, while signing off as runners-up at China Masters Super 750 as well last year.
Satwik and Chirag proved third time lucky and their stellar show this week only reconfirmed chief coach Pullela Gopichand’s assertion that the duo will be the favourites to win Paris Olympics gold.
“FIRST TITLE OF THE YEAR. Satwik-Chirag win their 2nd #FrenchOpen and 2nd #Super750 title. Well done boys, proud of you,” the Badminton Association of India (BAI) wrote on X.
The duo entered the final with a clinical win over South Korea’s Seo Seung Jae and Kang Min Hyuk in straight games as they replicated almost the same in the summit clash.
In a face-off between the two best pairs in the world, the Indian team of Rankireddy and Shetty dominated most of the match against the reigning world champions to get one back, after losing against the same pair in the India Open final earlier this year.
In the semis, they took the revenge of the Indian Open defeat to the South African pair with a 21-13, 21-16 win.
