Here we go then, fasten your seatbelts. It's almost always exciting when these two meet.
Liang & Wang start with a couple of quick points but the Indians quickly catch up, with Chirag kicking things off with a big smash.
Journalism of Courage
Lakshya Sen and Satwik-Chirag, Men’s Singles Hong Kong Open Badminton Final 2025 Highlights: Lakshya Sen and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty lose in the finals of Hong Kong Open Super 500 on Sunday. Sen went down in straight games against China’s Li Shi Feng 15-21, 12-21 in just 45 minutes. his was Lakshya’s first final since the Syed Modi Super 300 last November but his wait for a Super 500 title since 2023 Canada Open continued. Lakshya had earlier beaten world No 6 Chou Tien Chen in a thrilling straight-games semifinal that ended 23-21, 22-20 in the Indian’s favour. TThe match against Chou might have ended in straight games but it wasn’t straightforward, as the players provided a throwback to Paris 2024, where the Indian had won in three games, in another match filled with highlight-worthy rallies. In the final, Lakshya faces a familiar foe in Li Shi Feng for the 14th time in a rivalry that dates back to their junior days. Read more about Lakshya Sen’s win here.
Earlier in the day, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty lost in three games against China’s Liang Weikeng and Wang Chang in the men’s doubles final. After winning the first game, Satwik-Chirag couldn’t continue the momentum as they lost 21-16, 14-21, 17-21. This was the 10th meeting between the two former world No 1 pairs, and Liang-Wang now lead the H2H 7-3. For Satwik-Chirag, this was the first final of 2025, breaking a streak of semifinals defeats. Read more about Satwik-Chirag’s semifinal performance here.
Here we go then, fasten your seatbelts. It's almost always exciting when these two meet.
Liang & Wang start with a couple of quick points but the Indians quickly catch up, with Chirag kicking things off with a big smash.
Shivani Naik: Labubus have gone elite and upwardly mobile - silk coats for those dangling off Liang Weikeng's kitbag.
Satwik-Chirag are the first to enter the court, followed by Liang-Wang who get loud cheers as they make their entrance.
Here's how the two pairs got here.
While they have met 9 times in the past, here's how this year's two matches panned out. Tied at 1-1 in 2025.
Satwik-Chirag vs Liang-Wang at the Worlds
Having faced, survived and gulped down their biggest nemesis – the opponent’s treacherous serve, always laced with wicked twirls – Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty roused themselves to win a fighting pre-quarterfinal against Chinese Liang Weikeng-Wang Chang to round off a gleeful day for Indian badminton in Paris at the World Championships. The 19-21, 21-15, 21-17 match in 66 testy minutes wasn’t won on latent power or talent or confidence. The Indian duo clawed back the rock-face, dodged landslide debris of Chinese momentum, suffered Liang’s usual whimsy wizardry, to eke out a win while not dictating the tone or tenor of the match. Like bouldering pros, the Indians used all the jagged angles of their shots and tiniest of crevices in the Chinese defense to record a win – on a run of six straight points – that will go some way in healing the hurt of the Olympics at the same Venue last year.
Wang Zhi Yi and Han Yue being felicitated... and soon after, it will be time for Satwik-Chirag vs Liang-Wang
It was never formally discussed, but very early in the piece, Chandrashekhar Shetty decided to gift his World Championship medallist son Chirag a cocoon of normalcy, sanitised of high-stress expectations at home. “We only pray for his and Satwik’s good health. We never ask him questions on badminton,” he says after Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty ensured a second Worlds bronze, India’s only medal from the Paris edition. Chandrashekhar, a hotelier from Mumbai, played a lot of gully cricket in Goregaon and realised his role in Chirag’s life would be unique – being quietly proud of his achievements as a parent, but offering him an enveloping calming silence and distinct absence of probing, poking posers, even when the world hankered after a gold medal and kept reminding him of the misses at the Olympics.
Satwik: It’s completely different, like first half and second half. Last time, we were very young, we used to just follow him, whatever he tells us. We just used to listen to him. But now, it’s two-way. We share our things, what is working and what is not working. We are just mainly focusing on the service and receiving, most of the time in the practice. It hasn’t helped that we have been injured and we had hardly one week of 100% practice. We are also focussing on the spin serve, trying new things in the first 3-4 strokes. games have speeded up, everyone is playing very fast in the first four strokes.
So, you guys are working on your own spin serves? We saw a couple from Satwik in Macau.Satwik: Ya, I have been trying to do the spin serve in training. In fact, actually coming before the whole two weeks, I was doing only a spin serve. But in Paris, I felt normal serve was working rather than the spin serve. Because the shuttle wasn’t spinning that much.
Chirag: It’s been a very difficult year. There’s a lot more than meets the eye. There are plenty of things that people don’t see. We both are very disappointed because, yes, we could have played a final. But with the way things have been over the past year, winning a medal… we wouldn’t have even thought of it. To come here with the draw that we had, it was quite a tough draw, to be honest, right from the first day itself. It was never easy to beat pairs we’ve not had a comfortable time with, at a major event and come out there and beat them and come here and win a medal.. it’s definitely great what we’ve been able to do. Wouldn’t say we are entirely happy. But when I look back over the year that we’ve had, I think it’s a very special medal.
So now it's time for the men's doubles final! Yet another final between Satwik-Chirag and Liang-Wang.
Wang Zhi Yi comes back from 17-20 in Game 2 to complete a STUNNING win in the women's singles final.
INCREDIBLE POINT!
Speaking to The Indian Express from Paris, Satwik-Chirag looked back on their week in Paris and discussed what’s next.
What does this medal mean to you?
Satwik: It’s been a tough season for us, on and off the court. Things were not in place mentally, physically. So many things in the background. But still fighting for the place in the top eight, and still hunting for that podium finish. At the right time we picked up. Yes, a little disappointed too. We could have gone a little further. But before coming here, we wanted to beat these two pairs. Especially the Chinese, then obviously Aaron-Soh, the way we played, I was happy that we are not so behind. We are up there. We settle with bronze, next we will see in Delhi.
“This bronze (at Worlds) will do a lot of good to their frame of mind. Everyone of course trains long cycles for the Olympics especially in a sport like our’s where the Games are a pinnacle. But the Olympics is also where there’s a lot happening, beyond the game and how well you playing. So going back to Paris, it’s not the same event, but same venue. It must’ve been a tough medal mentally to win. And by beating Chia-Soh, to whom they had lost to at crucial events. It made us so, so happy,” she says, having been around in Paris last year. Redemption or not, the medal feels personal to her. “Last three months have been tough, trust me…” she trails off.
She rarely or never mentions the significance of it, but Ashwini Ponnappa was right there when India kickstarted the habit of winning medals at World Championships. In 2011, she began the streak with Jwala Gutta, and then went on to be an all-weather well-wisher and true-blue teammate to a pair that has been the biggest doubles story of the last decade – Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty. “They have risen above the challenges of the past year. We are rooting for them to do even better,” she says with granite-solid loyalty that stems from closely watching your people struggle and then beat back the odds. Satwik tasted his earliest international doubles success alongside Ashwini in mixed doubles, and she completely understood when he chose to focus on men’s doubles. As a well-travelled senior, she also helped them get into the groove of travel in the Far East, the weather, the customs, the food, famously introducing Chirag to experimental Japanese cuisine. She might have been privy to all their form struggles, technical frustrations and even injuries, but was known for her non-interfering, always-positive, quietly cheerleading wise counsel.
Looks like we might be heading for a decider in the women's singles final, meaning we will have to wait a bit longer for the men's doubles final
Satwik-Chirag came through in straight games against Chen Cheng Kuan and Lin Bing-Wei of Chinese Taipei as the world No 9 from India registered a largely comfortable 21-17, 21-15 win in just 38 minutes, to set up another tantalising title clash with China’s Lian Weikeng and Wang Chang. This will be the 10th meeting between the two former world No 1 pairs, with Liang-Wang leading 6-3 but Satwik-Chirag winning the most recent clash in Paris at the Worlds round of 16.
“Final, finally,” Chirag told BWF. “We’ve been constantly playing semifinals and we really wanted to make the final. It’s been a while so we are extremely happy.”
Then came the point of the day. At 8-11, with the leftie Lin serving, Chirag morphed into a gymnast, showing sensational flexibility and agility to keep the rally alive with four returns, each of which could have been a winner for the Taipei pair. First, with the third shot of the rally, he arched his back to make space for a forehand block with the shuttle zoning in on his torso at one point. Then he somehow dug the shuttle out from near his right foot, inches off the floor. That was followed by two full-stretch forward dives as Lin tried to catch him out with drops at the net. Having witnessed Chirag pull a rabbit out of the hat, Satwik then came up with a clever direction change on his forehand block to open up the court before Chirag closed the point out. The Indians had no business winning that rally, but they did.
Satwik-Chirags match will start after the women's singles final that is currently underway, where Wang Zhiyi is in the lead against Han Yue having won the first game.
At the peak of their prowess – which, they insist, they haven’t hit again just yet this year – Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty had a reputation of converting good form in a tournament into deep runs. And by deep, we mean regularly playing on Sundays. From March 2023 to May 2024, Satwik and Chirag had a 100% record on Saturdays – winning 10 straight semifinals. But in a season where they have had to switch on and off for multiple reasons, the semifinal had become something of a jinx. Post Paris 2024, where they lost in the quarterfinal, Satwik-Chirag had reached six semifinals and lost all of those (five this year), most recently at the World Championships in Paris; a defeat that left them somewhat disappointed despite resulting in a fine bronze. On Saturday, that jinx ended at the Hong Kong Open Super 500.
Hello all, and welcome to our continued live coverage of Indian badminton and today, we have not one but two title clashes to look forward to! And both, tantalisingly, are high-profile India vs China clashes.
At the Hong Kong Open Super 500, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty are in the men's doubles final while Lakshya Sen made it to the men's singles final. While Satwik-Chirag take on another former world No 1 pair in Liang Weikeng and Wang Chang, Lakshya Sen faces a familiar rival from junior days in Li Shi Feng.
First up is Satwik-Chirag, stay tuned for live updates.
Why Ashwini Ponnappa believes ‘ambitious’ Satwik-Chirag can beat Malaysia’s Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik again and push Koreans Seo Seung-jae-Kim Won-ho
She rarely or never mentions the significance of it, but Ashwini Ponnappa was right there when India kickstarted the habit of winning medals at World Championships. In 2011, she began the streak with Jwala Gutta, and then went on to be an all-weather well-wisher and true-blue teammate to a pair that has been the biggest doubles story of the last decade – Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty.
“They have risen above the challenges of the past year. We are rooting for them to do even better,” she says with granite-solid loyalty that stems from closely watching your people struggle and then beat back the odds.
