Thailand Open 2024 Final Highlights: Satwik-Chirag win second title of 2024, set to return to world No 1 | Badminton News
On Saturday, they produced a dominant performance against Ming Che Lu/Kai Wei Tang of Chinese Taipei 21-11, 21-12 in the men’s doubles semifinal. (BWF/Badminton Photo)
Thailand Open: Satwik-Chirag seek that familiar feeling of winning as they reach another final in Bangkok
Potentially, the world No 1 ranking is in sight once again for Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, but at this point on the men’s doubles circuit, it’s a game of musical chairs. It’s changing frequently enough for it to not matter as much in the bigger picture. In the here and now, what matters is good rhythm in the lead-up to the Paris Olympics. The warm fuzzy feeling that comes with winning matches consently.
During the Thomas Cup title defence recently, that feeling went missing for Satwik-Chirag. In what has otherwise been a fine season, they struggled for rhythm in Chengdu. And that is why reaching the final of the Thailand Open will be a timely boost. On Saturday, they produced a dominant performance against Ming Che Lu/Kai Wei Tang of Chinese Taipei 21-11, 21-12 in the men’s doubles semifinal. The World No. 3 duo will face China’s Chen Bo Yang/Liu Yi in the final on Sunday, who are ranked 29 in the world.
“Overall a good tournament for us, we didn’t hit our 100% at the last tournament,” Satwik told BWF later. “We are really happy with the way we have played. We wanted to play as many matches as possible to get that rhythm back. We always love playing in Thailand. It’s a special bond. We won our first medal (Superseries / Super 500+ level) here in 2019, we won Thomas Cup here.” (READ MORE)
