Rajgir: A year ago, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty had walked into the Adidas Arena in Paris looking to continue Indian badminton’s medal-winning run at the Olympics.
Seeded third in men’s doubles, they were one of the favourites to medal in the Games.
But Malaysian pair Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik broke Indian hearts by halting the duo’s run in the quarter-finals, ending the country’s hopes of winning a fourth successive Olympic medal in badminton.
It was deja vu late on Friday as the same pairs faced each other at the same venue and at the same stage, this time at the BWF World Championships. And it was Rankireddy and Shetty who came out on top to take revenge, beating the Malaysian world No.2 pair 21-12, 21-19 in 43 minutes to improve their head-to-head to 4-11.
“The feeling is really good. It was a rematch of sorts from the Olympics. And we finally got some redemption. It was the same court, same arena, a year back exactly. It’s always a pleasure playing against them. We’ve always had some really tough battles at the biggest of events. Really happy we could win,” said Shetty.
By doing so, Rankireddy and Shetty assured themselves of another medal from the prestigious annual competition, having won a bronze in 2022. It also extended India’s streak of winning at least one medal in the tournament since 2011. The ninth seeds joined Saina Nehwal (2) and PV Sindhu (5) as the only Indians to win multiple medals at the World Championships.
Tough times
The last year or so hasn’t exactly been an easy period for the reigning Asian Games champions. After they won the Thailand Open in May 2024, they had gone a full 15 months without reaching a final heading to Paris. Though they made five semi-finals since Bangkok, four this year, they found the going tough.
And a lot of it comes down to their physical struggles. Rankireddy’s shoulder has been a perennial problem for the 25-year-old, forcing the pair to pull out of multiple tournaments. But he also developed issues in his lower back ahead of last year’s Olympics. After the Games, both decided to take a three-and-a-half-month break to let their bodies heal.
The pair returned at the China Masters in November 2024 where they reached the semis but following that Shetty developed spasmic back pain which continued for months. In an interview to HT, Shetty had said at times the shooting pain was too much to take.
Again they took a couple of months off before returning to the tour in January where they reached the semis at the Malaysia Open and India Open. Just when the combine, currently world No.9, thought things were falling into place, Rankireddy was hit with personal tragedy when his father passed away in February while travelling to the national capital to see his son receive the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna.
Braving the loss, Rankireddy returned a couple of weeks later to take part in the All England Open in March before being diagnosed with chickenpox, which took the duo out of the circuit for another couple of months.
When they returned, so did Shetty’s back spasms, which also led to their unimpressive run on the BWF World Tour.
Despite all the issues, Rankireddy and Shetty still remain India’s best bet going into any tournament today. That has also been the case in Paris. Only this time, after months of patchy form, they appear to have hit their peak level, ousting two top pairs in China’s Liang Wei Kang/Wang Chang, who won silver at the 2024 Olympics, and former world champions Chia and Yik.
Next up, the ninth seeds take on China’s Chen Bo Yang and Liu Yi who they beat in their only previous meeting. Though on paper the 11th seeds are relatively inexperienced compared Rankireddy and Shetty, they’ve done brilliantly to reach the semis.
“Playing semi-finals there are no underdogs. We will take this just like any other match that we played in this tournament. They are a good, formidable pair. We’ve played against them before,” said Rankireddy.