Badminton, Korea Open, as it happened: Satwik and Chirag win third title of the season
Recap of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty’s first ever Korea Open title.
Chirag Shetty
The way we played today in the finals, didn’t start off 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.
Satwiksairaj Rankireddy
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. We want to continue with the same momentum next week at Japan Open so we’ll go back now, rest and focus again.
That’s it for The Field’s coverage of the Korea Open Super 500.
What a way to end the tournament. Satwisairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty had never reached the final at this event before, but now they’ve won the title.
It was a rather slow start against the world No 1 pair of Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Rian Ardianto, who at one stage led 19-10 in the opening game. But the Indians pushed and started to build momentum. Though they lost the opening game, the continued to push in the second and built on the rhythm to level the match, before finally cruising to the victory in the deciding game.
This was their third title this season, after wins at the Swiss Open Super 300 and the Indonesia Open Super 1000.
Men’s doubles final – Satwik/Chirag [3] 17-21, 21-13, 21-14 Alfian/Ardianto [1]: The Indians have won it!
Men’s doubles final – Satwik/Chirag [3] 17-21, 21-13, 20-12 Alfian/Ardianto [1]: Seven match points now.
Men’s doubles final – Satwik/Chirag [3] 17-21, 21-13, 19-12 Alfian/Ardianto [1]: Indians are two points away. The smash by Alfian goes straight into the net.
Men’s doubles final – Satwik/Chirag [3] 17-21, 21-13, 18-12 Alfian/Ardianto [1]: Well placed shot by Chirag that both the Indonesians stretch for but none can get to.
Men’s doubles final – Satwik/Chirag [3] 17-21, 21-13, 16-12 Alfian/Ardianto [1]: With that Alfian error, the Indians are now five points away from the title.
Men’s doubles final – Satwik/Chirag [3] 17-21, 21-13, 14-11 Alfian/Ardianto [1]: The Indians have held onto that three-point lead at the break so far. Still quite tight between these two teams.
Men’s doubles final – Satwik/Chirag [3] 17-21, 21-13, 11-8 Alfian/Ardianto [1]: This deciding game has been much tighter than the first two, so far. Satwik and Chirag take a 11-8 lead at the break.
Men’s doubles final – Satwik/Chirag [3] 17-21, 21-13, 7-3 Alfian/Ardianto [1]: Satwik-Chirag take an early lead in the decider. Still a while to go, but a good start.
Men’s doubles final – Satwik/Chirag [3] 17-21, 21-13 Alfian/Ardianto [1]: Solid comeback from the Indians. They take this match into the decider.
Men’s doubles final – Satwik/Chirag [3] 17-21, 19-11 Alfian/Ardianto [1]: The lead is now up to 8. The Indians are just two points away from taking this match into the decider.
Men’s doubles final – Satwik/Chirag [3] 17-21, 15-10 Alfian/Ardianto [1]: The Indians now have a five-point lead. The Indonesians haven’t managed to find any momentum so far.
Men’s doubles final – Satwik/Chirag [3] 17-21, 11-8 Alfian/Ardianto [1]: It’s still close between the two pairs, but the Indians go into the break with a three-point lead.
Men’s doubles final – Satwik/Chirag [3] 17-21, 6-4 Alfian/Ardianto [1]: Still nothing much between the two teams in the second game, but a much better start from the Indians this time around.
Men’s doubles final – Satwik/Chirag [3] 17-21 Alfian/Ardianto [1]: The Indonesians had threatened to run away with it at 19-10. But the Indians started to find their rhythm and pushed back strongly. Eventually, Alfian and Ardianto did win the opening game, but after a big signal of intent from the Satwik and Chirag.
Men’s doubles final – Satwik/Chirag [3] 16-19 Alfian/Ardianto [1]: That big Satwik smash finally comes into the match. Gap of just three now.
Men’s doubles final – Satwik/Chirag [3] 14-19 Alfian/Ardianto [1]: The gap is closing. The Indians have won 4 points in a row now – the latest coming at the end of a entertaining, long rally that had a rather tame ending.
Men’s doubles final – Satwik/Chirag [3] 9-18 Alfian/Ardianto [1]: Gap now up to 8. The gap is just growing, and the Indians are in danger of losing their first game of the tournament.
Men’s doubles final – Satwik/Chirag [3] 7-15 Alfian/Ardianto [1]: Gap now up to 8. The Indonesians have been in control so far, while the Indians haven’t managed to create any inroads. There was even that fault-serve by Satwik.
Men’s doubles final – Satwik/Chirag [3] 4-11 Alfian/Ardianto [1]: The Indonesians take a big lead into the first inteval.
Men’s doubles final – Satwik/Chirag [3] 3-8 Alfian/Ardianto [1]: The lead has gone up to 5 for the Indonesians. They seemed to have settled in quickly while the Indians seem to be looking to find some momentum.
Men’s doubles final – Satwik/Chirag [3] 2-5 Alfian/Ardianto [1]: The Indians haven’t quite started to find their rhythm just yet, a few mishits have let the Indonesians take an early lead.
The men’s doubles final is up next.
Timings update: The men’s doubles final is the last match scheduled for the day. It will start soon after the ongoing men’s singles final between Loh Kean Yew and Anders Antonsen. Currently, that match has gone into the deciding game.
Hello and welcome to The Field’s coverage of Indian badminton
Reigning Asian Champions Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty are in the final of the Korea Open Super 500 for the first time.
They’re aiming to win their third tour title of this season. They won the Swiss Open Super 300 earlier this year, followed by their first ever Super 1000 triumph, in Indonesia, last month.
On Saturday, they beat world No 2 pair of Liang Wei Keng and Wang Chang of China 21-15, 24-22 in the semi-final.
Shortly, they will take on the world No 1 pair from Indonesia, Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Rian Ardianto for the title.
This is the fifth time the two teams are meeting, and they’re split 2-2 head-to-head.
Screenshots in the blog courtesy BWF / Viacom 18 / Tournament Software