Picture Credit: Twitter
In a historic feat, the ace Indian men’s double pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty have won gold at the Badminton Asia Championship 2023 on Sunday in Dubai. The duo defeated the Malaysian pair of Ong Yew Sin and Teo Ee Yi 16-21, 21-17, 21-19 to win the summit clash of the BWF event. The Indian ace men’s doubles pair made a significant comeback in the game after they lost their first set 16-21. With this, they have become the first Indian men’s doubles pair to win the Badminton Asia Championship.
They had reached the final of the event by defeating the reigning Olympic champions, the Chinese Taipei duo of Lee Yang and Wang Chi-Lin after they retired, and the Indians were handed the win. Rankireddy and Shetty had won the first game of the semi-final and were trailing 13-14 in the second round when the Chinese pair retired. The Indian duo had earlier made it to the semifinal defeating the Indonesian pair of Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan 21-11 21-12 in the quarterfinals on Friday, guaranteeing India’s men’s double medal at the BWF tournament after 52 years.
Meanwhile, India's singles run at the major tournament came to an end early as the two-time Olympic medallist, PV Sindhu went down to the Korean shuttler An Se Young in the women's singles quarter-final 21-18, 5-21, 9-21. On the other hand, HS Prannoy retired midway during his second game in the quarter-final Kanta Tsuneyama of Japan, as he trailed 11-21, 9-13 when he ended the game.
