The Indian men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty clinched the bronze medal at the 2025 BWF World Champions in Paris on Saturday.
Up against Chen Bo Yang and Liu Yi of China in the semi-finals, the Indians went down 19-21, 21-18, 12-21 in an hour and seven minutes.
The Indians had a stellar start to the match as they opened up an 11-5 lead at the mid-game interval.
The ninth seeded Rankireddy and Shetty, however, soon lost the plot as Chen-Liu fought back to equalised at 12-12.
Their troubles were further compounded as the Chinese pair opened up a 17-14 lead, winning ten of the last 12 points played. Despite the stomach for fight back, the complete loss in momentum meant that the Indians surrendered 19-21.
The second game once again saw Rankireddy and Shetty get off the blocks quickly. But Chen-Liu kept them in the check, trailing by just two points 9-11 at the mid-game interval.
Shetty soon settled in at the net as the Indians ditched the rotational strategy to back what works for them individually. The Chinese did once again threaten to wrap up the match in straight games when they equalised 16-16 but Rankireddy and Shetty pulled away under pressure to win 21-18 and forced a decider.
The third game was nothing short of a nightmare, as Chen-Liu troubled the Indians with their flick serve. The latter in particular was a menace on court and the Indians found themselves, trailing 0-9.
It did improve to 3-11 before the change of ends, but there surely wasn’t any come back from this point.
Rankireddy-Shetty did try and push for a few winners, but those were too far in between. Chen-Liu held on to their advantage to romped home to a comfortable win.
Despite the loss, Rankireddy and Shetty became only the first Indian doubles pair to win medals at the BWF World Championships. They are also only the third Indians behind Saina Nehwal and PV Sindhu to win multiple world championships medals in badminton.
