Almost two hours past midnight in the country, Indian badminton fans were in for a huge shock.
In what was their easiest battle, at least on paper, in three days – Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty went down 19-21, 21-18, 12-21 to China’s Chen Bo Yang and Liu Yi in the men’s doubles semi-final at the 2025 BWF World Championships.
The Indians, seeded ninth in the competition, returned with a World Championship bronze for a second time in their career. While it propelled Rankireddy and Shetty to India’s third most successful shuttlers at the World Championships behind PV Sindhu and Saina Nehwal, there was more for the taking.
But what exactly went wrong for Rankireddy and Shetty?
Well, almost the entire third game.
Having forced a decider after winning the second game, Rankireddy and Shetty struggled to get going in what is now a common problem across disciplines of Indian badminton.
They trailed 0-9 and were down 3-11 before the change of ends. There, honestly, was no coming back from this point.
The Chinese pair’s flick serves – a type of service where the player makes the opponent believe they are going to hit short but deceives them with a last-minute flick with fingers and wrist to send the shuttlecock deep – proved too hot to handle for the former world No. 1s.
Shetty admitted the same in a post-match interview.
“We did not get into any rhythm,” said Shetty to BWF. “Credits to them, they served quite well right from the start of the third game.”
“We could have done a few things better, not rushing to the service because they were serving quite deep,” he added.
Liu, in particular, was devastating during this phase of play as he often had the Indians doubting themselves. It wasn’t just his flick serves but also a couple of backhand jump smashes and backhand pushes from the net, which caught Rankireddy and Shetty by surprise.
Earlier in the match, Rankireddy and Shetty were also guilty of getting sucked into Chen and Liu’s flat, fast gameplay. It was something they countered quite efficiently during their straight games quarter-final win over Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik, but against the Chinese, they were left in a quandary.
They squandered an 11-5 lead in the first game to trail 12-13. The rally where they equalised at 13-13 was the longest of the match at merely 16 shots.
The fact that Chen and Liu were happy to sit deep and defend also played a part in this, as Rankireddy and Shetty’s lifts to corners were countered effectively. Add to that Chen’s powerful smashes, and the Indians were lost for options as the Chinese duo clawed their way back to win the opening game.
Commentator Steen Pedersen often noted the need for Rankireddy and Shetty to bide their time and take the pace off the shuttle.
It was exactly what they did when they held their nerves to win the second game, after the 11th-seeded opponents had levelled up at 16-16 following yet another slow start.
An animated coach Tan Kim Her parroted almost the same words to his wards after they forced a decider after that brief scare.
“We are following them too much,” he said. “Calm yourselves down, take your time.
“Don’t go for hit, hit, hit without thinking. They are nothing,” he added.
But in the decider, there was not a lot Rankireddy and Shetty could do as Liu got on a roll.
There was a visible weakness as Chen-Liu often cooped up together on one side of the court, leaving the other half unmanned right from the start of the match to 67 minutes later. The Indians, however, could never take advantage.
Rankireddy and Shetty entered the 2025 BWF World Championships as India’s biggest medal hopes but not as favourites in men’s doubles. They had a tough road – beating two higher-ranked players against whom they have a sorry record.
“Sad that we couldn’t play the final. We really wanted to,” a dejected Shetty said.
After a quarter-final exit at the 2024 Paris Olympics, where they were top contenders, Rankireddy and Shetty nearly had their Parisian redemption a year later.
