China Masters: Satwik and Chirag lost after fighting in the final, fought for one hour and 11 minutes with the world number one Chinese pair

Top seeded Indian pair Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty had to settle for runner-up defeat in the final of the China Masters Super 750 badminton. In the final, the duo lost 19-21, 21-18, 19-21 to world number one and second seeded host Chinese pair Liang Wei-Keng and Wang Chang in a three-game clash. This match lasted for one hour and 11 minutes. The Indian pair’s dream of winning the fourth and overall sixth title of the Badminton World Federation (BWF) World Tour this year could not be fulfilled.

Chinese pair took revenge for Asiad defeat
Apart from winning the Asian Games gold medal this year, Satwik and Chirag have won the titles of Swiss Open Super 300, Indonesian Open Super 1000 and Korean Open Super 500. Both also won the Asian Championship title this year. Satwik-Chirag were considered to have the upper hand in the semi-finals. Both of them had defeated this Chinese pair in the last match held in the final of Asiad. There was a tremendous struggle in the very first game, in which the Chinese pair was successful. In the second game, the Indian pair made a comeback and won the game 21-18 to level the match at 1-1.

Saved six championship points in the deciding game.
In the third and deciding game, the Indian pair were trailing 1-8, but both put up a tremendous fight. The score was 13-20, but the Indian pair saved six championship points to make the score 19-20. Despite this, the former world number one Indian pair had to face defeat by 19-21. The men’s singles title was won by Japan’s Kodai Naraoka by defeating compatriot Kenta Nishimoto 21-13, 21-13 and the women’s singles title was won by China’s Chen Yu Fei by defeating Han Yu 18-21, 21-4 (retired).