Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty were knocked out in the semi-finals of the 2025 BWF World Tour Finals on Saturday.
Up against the 2024 Paris Olympics silver medallists Liang Wei Keng and Wang Chang of China, the Indians went down 21-10, 17-21, 13-21 in a match which lasted over an hour.
Reflecting on the loss, Shetty admitted that playing three back-to-back deciders in the group stages took a toll on them in the third game against Liang-Wang.
“In the third game we were not so sharp and quite tired,” Shetty said after the match.
“Last night, we slept at 2:30am [after the final group match against Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik].
“Third game surely was lot more physical because we were not as quick as the first two. In the first two games, there was a lot more punch in our smashes. In the third game, we lost the punch. But you have to work your way around these things,” he added.
Rankireddy and Shetty had a splendid start to the semi-final as they raced to take the opening game 21-10 in no time. The fact that Liang and Wang decided not to go all in after the Indians opened up a sizeable lead also helped.
The second game saw Rankireddy and Shetty bounce back multiple times after trailing. They were level at 15-15 before the Chinese pair put their foot down in the closing stages to force a decider with a 21-17 win.
“We started off quite well in the first set and caught them in the right areas,” said Shetty.
“In the second game, they played better and we couldn’t capitalise,” he added.
The loss means that Rankireddy and Shetty ended their 2025 season without a title to show for. This is the first year since 2021 that they have gone without a title triumph.
They, however, fought back from an early slump to world No 27 in the rankings to break back into top 5 of the rankings.
“It wasn’t a good year personally for me,” reflected Rankireddy, who had lost his father earlier this year.
“It was tough. We were ranked 27th and from there playing back-to-back to get back to the rhythm. Then we had a break again and then getting back into the rhythm. It was a lot of challenges for us.
“Looking back, proud of how we came back this year and kept playing,” he added.
