Shenzhen: The Top Indian men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty suffered a straight-game loss at the hands of recently crowned World Champions Kim Won Ho and Seo Seung Jae of South Korea in the final of the China Masters 2025, a BWF World Series Super 750 badminton tournament, here on Sunday.
The Indian duo, who have not dropped a single game on their way to the final, lost 19-21, 15-21 to Kim and Seo in the men’s doubles summit clash at the Shenzhen Arena for the back-to-back runner-up finish on the BWF World Tour.
This was the second final of 2025 for Satwik and Chirag. They had earlier made it to the final of the Hong Kong Super 500 last week, breaking a streak of six semifinal defeats, where they lost in the title clash against China’s Liang Weikeng and Wang Chang in three games.
The Koreans took the lead in the early exchanges, but Chirag levelled it at 3-3 with a third shot at the net. A barrage of smashes from the Indians prevented the Koreans from extending their lead beyond one point, up to 5-6. Satwik and Chirag then snatched the lead and went into the break with an 11-7 advantage.
Satwik and Chirag appeared to be in control at 14-7, but the Koreans fought back to cut the deficit to 13-14. They went on to level the scores at 17-all. A mistake from each of Satwik and Chirag brought the first game within reach for the Koreans, who eventually took the opener 21-19.
The second game was equally contested, with both teams level at 9-all. The Koreans then held a narrow one-point lead and went into the mid-game interval ahead at 11-10. After the break, they extended their lead to 14-11, before Satwik and Chirag mounted a mini fightback to reduce the gap to 14-16. However, in the blink of an eye, the Koreans earned five match points and quickly wrapped up the match—and the title.
(IANS)
