Satwik-Chirag win Thailand Open title
Indian pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty received a major boost ahead of the Paris Olympics as they secured the men's doubles title at the Thailand Open Super 500 badminton tournament with a straight-game win over Chen Bo Yang and Liu Yi of China here on Sunday. In the form of their lives, Satwik and Chirag, the world number three pair prevailed 21-15 21-15 over Liu and Chen, ranked 29th, for their ninth BWF world tour title.
It was also the second title of the season for the Asian Games champions following their triumph at the French Open Super 750 in March. They had also finished runners-up at Malaysia Super 1000 and India Super 750.
"Bangkok has always been special for us, we won our first Super Series title back in 2019 here and also the Thomas cup, so it has been a special place and so happy to be here," Chirag said after the win.
For Satwik and Chirag, the title comes at a major juncture of their career as they had some low returns in the last couple of tournaments.
The Indian pair lost in the second round at All England Championships and then missed the Asia Championships due to an injury to Satwik.
The Thomas Cup campaign was also not too fruitful as they lost a couple of narrow matches to top pairs.
Satwik and Chirag had come into the Thailand Open final without dropping a game and were favourites to claim the title, while Liu and Chen also produced some stunning wins in the run-up to the summit clash and had the reputation of never losing a final.
However, it was always going to be a
