Chirag Shetty-Satwiksairaj Rankireddy first Indian doubles pair to win a BWF Super 750 crown.
Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy pocketed the biggest title of their career, winning the French Open Super 750 badminton crown with a straight-games decimation of Chinese Taipei's Lu Ching Yao and Yang Po Han in the men's doubles final, in Paris, on Sunday.
The Indian badminton pair, which knocked out Japanese top seeds Takuro Hoki and Yugo Kobayashi in the quarter-finals, won 21-13, 21-19.
Chirag and Satwiksairaj thus continued their dream run this year, which saw them win the Indian Open Super 500 title, Commonwealth Games gold, Thomas Cup crown and an unprecedented bronze at the World Championships in August.
This was their fourth BWF World Tour title, but the previous three were lower tier tournaments. Their first, the Hyderabad Open 2018, was a Super 100 tournament while the Thailand Open 2019 and India Open 2022 were both Super 500 events.
The triumph made them the first Indian doubles pair to clinch a BWF Super 750 crown. The duo made it to the 2019 French Open final but lost the title decider to Indonesian aces Marcus Fernaldi Gideon and Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo.
This was also the first time since Partho Ganguli and Vikram Singh’s triumph in 1983 that an Indian men’s doubles pair won the French Open.
The seventh seeds made a strong start and picked up the first five points of the match to set the tone.
Playing their aggressive brand of badminton, they comfortably controlled the opening game and closed it out with ease.
Chirag and Satwiksairaj, who played their Chinese Taipei opponents for the first time, continued the momentum in the second game and went into the mid-game break with a comfortable six-point lead.
Lu Ching Yao and Yang Po Han, however, showed character and clawed their way back into the contest and levelled the score at 14.
The comeback clearly marked a momentum switch in the match as Yao and Han fought hard to take a 19-17 lead.
However, the in-form Indian pair showed extreme maturity to hold their nerves and secure the game and match.
