Korea Open: Satwik-Chirag happy with third title of season, want to continue with the momentum

Yeosu (South Korea), July 23: India's men's doubles pair of Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy expressed happiness on winning their third BWF Super 500 title of their career and especially at the way they played throughout the week in the Korea Open badminton championship.

Asian Champions Satwik and Chirag came from behind to beat World No. 1 Indonesian duo Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Rian Ardianto 17-21, 21-13, 21-14 in a thrilling three-game final on Sunday.

Satwik and Chirag, the world No. 3 pair, made a slow start to the match and fell 19-10 behind. They picked up their game as the match progressed and continued chipping away at the Indonesian pair's lead but it was a bit too late to salvage the opening game.

In the second game, the Indians made a much better start and took an 11-8 lead going into the interval. They upped the ante after the restart and forced a decider.

"The way we played today in the finals, didn’t start that well but happy that we could win that second game and keep the momentum until the very end and yes, extremely happy that we could win the consecutive titles after the Indonesia Open," Chirag Shetty said after the match.

With this win, Satwik and Chirag have now beaten Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Rian Ardianto in three of their five head-to-head clashes. 

The result also means Satwik and Chirag have won their last five finals on the BWF World Tour. The Indian pair last lost a title decider at the French Open 2019 against another Indonesian pair, Marcus Fernaldi Gideon and Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo.

Though they have had a fine season so far, Satwik said he was happy with their play and overall performance in the Korea Open.  

"It’s been pretty good week for us. We played some amazing badminton throughout the week here and I am happy with the performance today," he said.

Satwik said that they would like to continue with the momentum in next week's Japan Open and subsequent tournaments this season.

"We want to continue with the same momentum next week at Japan Open so we’ll go back now, rest and focus again. Thank you for all the support," Satwiksairaj Rankireddy said.