India’s men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty scaled to a career-best No 7 in the Badminton World Federation rankings released on Tuesday.
Satwik and Chirag were previously placed at No 9 after a stunning run to the final at the French Open in Paris. The duo continued their good run of form in the China Open last week, reaching the semi-finals before bowing out to familiar foes, the Indonesian pair of Marcus Fernaldi Gideon and Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo.
Satwik and Chirag are now India’s first men’s doubles pair to enter the top-10 in the BWF rankings. In doubles, only the mixed doubles pair of Jwala Gutta and Valiyaveetil Diju as well as the women’s doubles pair of Gutta/Ashwini Ponnappa have reached the top-10.
Satwik and Chirag stunning rise saw them beat the world No 6 pair of Hiroyuki Endo and Yuta Watanabe of Japan and World No 2 Hendra Setiawan and Mohammad Ahsan of Indonesia. B Sai Praneeth, meanwhile, became only the seventh Indian man to enter the top-10 after moving up by a spot in the table.