After losing the first game, the Indian pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty was able to bounce back in the second and build on the momentum to beat Fajar Alfian and Muhamad Rian Ardianto in the Korea Open men’s doubles final on Sunday. The victory over the world No 1 pair led to the fourth title of the year for the Indian duo. “The way we played today in the finals, didn’t start off that well but happy that we could win that second game and keep the momentum until the very end. Yes, extremely happy that we could win consecutive titles after the Indonesia Open,” Chirag said after the match.
Satwik-Chirag reflect on the memorable week 🗣️@satwiksairaj | @Shettychirag04 #KoreaOpen2023#IndiaontheRise#Badminton pic.twitter.com/hvzh3qSwWo
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The Indians, ranked third in the world, rallied their way to a 17-21, 21-13, 21-14 win over the two-time world championships bronze medallists Alfian and Ardianto in a thrilling summit clash of the Super 500 badminton tournament. The reigning Commonwealth Games champions thus extended their winning streak to 10 matches. It was another feather on their cap, following their victory at the Swiss Open, Asian Championships and Indonesia Open this year. “It’s been pretty good week for us. We played some amazing badminton throughout the week here and I am happy with the performance today. We want to continue with the same momentum next week at Japan Open. So, we’ll go back now, rest and focus again,” Satwik said. The duo also celebrated their fourth title in the year with some famous ‘Gangnam style’ dance moves.
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— ChairmanIOC (@ChairmanIOCL) July 23, 2023 Since the duo came together the duo has clinched numerous titles: Thomas Cup, Syed Modi, Swiss Open, Thailand Open, French Open, and Indonesia Open. Besides these, they also won gold at Commonwealth Games 2022 and bronze at the World Championships. In their winning journey, they have defeated pairs like world no. 3 Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik from Malaysia, and Lu Ching Yao and Yang Po Han from Chinese Taipei. With inputs from PTI