The Indian ace men’s doubles duo of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty had faced a rollercoaster of a season on the BWF World Tour Circuit 2025 because of frequent injury breaks.
The duo has just played eight tournaments in 2025 thus far, which included an injury withdrawal in the second round of the All England Championships in March 2025.
Satwik-Chirag chasing full fitness
After that injury layoff, Satwik-Chirag had to take a long two-month break from the circuit, which led to their withdrawal from two major events – Asian Championships and Sudirman Cup 2025.
But Satwik and Chirag are now slowly finding their best game with regular matches against top pairs, all done in pursuit of regaining their full momentum before the Senior World Championships next month.
“With each passing day, we are definitely feeling better, but yes, still a long way to go. I wouldn’t say that we are at our best yet, but happy with the way we are playing,” Chirag Shetty told to media on their return to the circuit.
A topsy-turvy match
On Thursday, at the China Open Super 1000 tournament, the duo reached the quarterfinal stage with a hard-fought second-round win against Leo Carnando and Bagas Maulana of Indonesia.
However, it was not an easy win for Satwik and Chirag as the Indonesian pair challenged them relentlessly, preventing the Indians from gaining more than a two-point lead in the first game.
“Yes, it was very topsy-turvy. We didn’t have a sizeable lead, and neither did they, but eventually, at around 16th point, we finally had our breakthrough, where we won 3-4 points and closed out the game.” Chirag summarizes the first game.
In the second game, the Indian pair had to struggle a lot more and was forced to chase a 4-point deficit, as Leo and Bagas got a solid lead post the mid-game, to close the match in straight games.
“In the second, we could have started a bit calmer and extracted some points,” said Chirag.
Satwik approved Chirag’s observations for the second game: “After the first game, we got a lot of confidence and got a bit passive in second and lacked accuracy with too many mistakes, which we didn’t do in first game, and then had to chase the game.”
Although the Indian duo still have one lower-tier Super 300 tournament in Macau, China, next week, the China Open is the last major event for the former world no.1 before the upcoming World Championships.
