Xtra Time Web Desk: Asian Games gold medallists Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy fought hard but could not get the better of world champions Kang Min Hyuk and Seo Seung Jae of South Korea in the men’s doubles final of the Yonex-Sunrise India Open 2024 at the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium on Sunday.
The Indian combination went down 15-21, 21-11, 21-18 in an hour and five minutes to finish runners-up in the BWF Super 750 badminton tournament, organised by the Badminton Association of India.
The second-seeded Indians, who had won the title in 2021, started the match with an attacking approach. Playing with the wind, Chirag and Satwik engaged their opponents in flat exchanges. Though the Koreans managed to keep pace with them till 7-7, the Indians slowly but surely pulled away with Chirag dominating the net exchanges to pocket the opening game.
The tables were turned in the second as the Indians committed quite a few errors trying to attack the serve and quickly fell behind 1-5. Left-handed Seo managed to leave Chirag and Satwik flag-footed on a couple of occasions with his deceptive cross-court drives as the Koreans clinched nine straight points from 7-5 and then maintained that momentum to force the decider.
In the final game, the Koreans were again quick off the block and changed ended leading 11-6. This is when the Indians began their fightback with Chirag once again attacking the net with much more precision.
The Indians, who had finished runners-up last week in the Malaysia Open, managed to close the gap to 18-19 and raised hopes of yet another come-from-behind win over the world champions. But Seo’s cross-court push to Satwik’s forehand helped the Koreans earn their first match point and they made no mistake in wrapping things up on the very first attempt.