Satwik-Chirag at BWF World Championships quarterfinals highlights: SatChi ensure medal for India, beat nemeses ChiaSoh in straight games

When asked before the World Championships if he dreaded India returning without a medal this time, national head coach Pullela Gopichand had said, "I don't know what you call dread. I don't dread it. Sindhu can beat most players, and Satwik-Chirag are a class pair. These people - their attack is far too good, to not deliver. If not at Paris, then at the next big one. Form and confidence are overrated. Sindhu, Satwik-Chirag don't need confidence, they command fear with that attack. Sit back and watch them win." 

But, we want gold.

Shivani Naik

We don't know if this counts is redemption. That is too heavy a word for what was lost last year at Paris Olympics. They were one of the favourites. They were in their favourite city. They faltered because of multiple factors.

But this... this is vindication. A validation for their efforts. A reward for sticking with it. And a reminder, timely, that these two are the finest India have produced.

Satwik, Chirag. Take a bow. That was pretty special. 

That will be all from us for now. Stay tuned for more overnight. Thanks a lot for joining along in the ride! 

Satwik had the shout of the day. When he slipped & disappeared & returned and announced "Aa gayaa" himself. 

Arrived indeed.

Shivani Naik

India back on medals podium after that miss in 2024. Every single year since 2011. 

It was a run started by Jwala-Ashwini in doubles. India's best showing last two years on circuit has been in doubles. Doubles needs a gold.

Shivani Naik

Satwik-Chirag excorise their demons from last year's Paris Olympics and don't leave it late this time against Chia-Soh. "Maar, Maar" was the sound from Chirag whenever a chance to kill the point came up and the duo followed that throughout the game to get better of their arch-nemeses. At one point the Malaysians came very close to push it to the decider making it 19-19 but the Indians prevailed.A straight game win to ensure second World Championships medal for themselves.

The duo ensured that India's record of winning atleast one medal at the World Championships continue without a blemish. Last year it looked bleak but HS Prannoy took down Viktor Axelsen in most dramatic fashion to ensure it goes on and now it's India's greatest doubles duo that continue it.

Pritish Raj

So.much.hurt these Malaysians have caused. Olympics quarters ofcourse, but they were 7-0 once. Next best only to Minions before Indians cracked the code to win Indonesia. 17-13. But like Sumeeth bellowed 'Active Mind'. You can't relax against these two. Then 19-15. That 49 shot rally had Indian hearts pumping at the triple. Satwik slipped, Satwik hopped back, Satwik smashed, and smashed once more.

But in the end, an almighty phew. 

Drive serve from Satwik at match point, clipped smash from Chirag on third shot return and eventually the shuttle fabulously, fantastically, furiously, fiendishly, funnily flew out of bounds. 

A note to remember. The Paris dream was of gold last Olympics. So there's two matches to go. 

They've brought down Chinese Liang-Wang and now Aaron-Soh to take their rightful place in the top 4. But go gold! The Semis first.

Shivani Naik

MEDAL INCOMING! SATWIK-CHIRAG HAVE DONE IT! 

A quick drive serve from Satwik, but Soh reacts superbly. Then it is over to Chirag at the backcourt, a couple of well-hit smashes, the 2nd one sails wide.

THE INDIANS HAVE MEDALLED IN PARIS. 

But, really, they will have their eyes set on the bigger prize. 

MATCH POINT FOR THE INDIANS! 

Chirag puts it away at the net. 

Can they convert? 

The Malaysians have drawn level. 

WOWIE. 

Aaron's serve, Satwik couldn't get the return right. 

That is another sensational rally and this is getting really close for comfort for the Indians. 

Chirag tries to go all out attack but the Malaysians' defence is super strong. 

And ChiaSoh have made it a 1-point game. A couple of "maar! maar abhi" from Chirag but the Indians couldn't quite find the breakthrough again.

WHAT A RALLY! WHAT A RALLY1 

46-SHOT RALLY! For 19-15 in Game 2! A hugely important point. Chirag nearly slipped but recovered to keep the rally going. And then Satwik goes BOOM. Nearly there.

Oh getting a bit nervy here. 

"Be daring, be daring. Come on!" Sumeeth Reddy reminds them.

And the Indians win a SUPER CRUCIAL POINT for 18-14. Chirag with a couple of attacking shots at the net to kill it off. 

POINT OF THE MATCH BY FAR! 

Satwik could have put this away at the net but sensational defence from the Malaysians keeps it alive. 

Then a flat exchange follows, all four players at it completely. 

Then Satwik has to scramble across the backcourt for a defensive get but that sets up the kill for the Malaysians.

A 41-shot rally! 

The Malaysians simply had to win that point. 

Oh great defence from Chirag, keeping the shuttle alive while on his knees almost but Aaron puts it away at the net. 

The Indians very comfortably placed at the moment... but can't afford to relax.

Aaron Chia botching that corner lift sending it wide is worrying for Malaysians. But as a tactic, them killing the pace, floating it high can be dangerous when smashing from the back. Chirag is leaping almost to 7 and half feet.

Shivani Naik

A service error, short on length from Satwik. But the Indians get the serve right back after another flat rally. 

A couple of booming smashes from Chirag at the backcourt as Aaron keeps lifting. But the ploy doesn't play. The Indians remaining on the front foot every chance they get. 

Another Chirag smash from the backcourt sets up a loose lift for Satwik to do his thing. "It's devastating isn't it?" Gill Clark reminds again. 

A soft error from Aaron, as he lifts the shuttle harmlessly over the backline from the net. 

And then another error on the length from the Malaysians who are starting to feel the heat. 

Oh a terrific rally at 13-8. First the Indians on the attack, the Malaysians lift and repel. Then the Indians turn to lift and repel... but not long enough. 

Comms saying it's still a full house for the last match of the day - 10.30 p.m local time. The Indians are quite popular amongst the French crowds. Sumeeth Reddy reminds the Indians to remain daring.

Shivani Naik

Soh throws up the racket in frustration as a mini period of recovery for the Malaysians is foiled. 

Chirag with great return and third shot, and Soh makes the mistake out of the first few shots. 

The Indians have a 4-point lead in Game 2! 

"Nobody has left this arena, it's half past 10 and it is still packed": Gill Clark

Soh Wooi Yik is making some claustrophobic errors in that narrow lane of operation he's working under. He's sending them long, messing the serve, and has become the attack-magnet, classic weak link target. 

Remember there's no two two Aarons. Just the one Aaron.

Shivani Naik

"It's blistering attack, isn't it? WOW": Gill Clark

That was just brute force from the Indians! Satwik from the backcourt, Chirag from the front court... and the former kills the rally with a body attack on Soh. 

The Chirag smash from the backcourt is no mean weapon. Might get lost sometimes under the power of Satwik. Two brilliant smashes in that rally to make it 8-4.

The Indians win another fine flat exchange for 9-4. Great direction change from Satwik at the end of the point to find the deep forehand corner. 

If the Indians are making the flat rallies their own, it's a very good sign. IT's been a problem area in the past especially against the Malaysians of all sorts. Chirag's drive is too quick and Soh sends it long. 

Make it 7-3 for the Indians now after another fine serve from Satwik, who is pumped with that. 

A good return from Chirag and Satwik is alert at the net to put the shuttle away as Soh tried a fancy behind-the-back return. 

The Malaysians make it 3-3 after a good return from Aaron. 

The Indians open a 5-3 lead after a flat exchange sees Aaron push the shuttle too hard and long. 

A dominant opening game for the Indians, and it is a repeat of Paris 2024 in terms of the start to this match. Satwik-Chirag take the lead. Didn't trail at any point during the opening game. 

One set done to Mission le' medal in Paris. A year after the Heartbreak. But The Roadblock is always the The Aaron Chia.

Shivani Naik

Satwik's serve return is so carefully centimetres above the tape, but at good speed, he's removing the venom from the Malaysian serve before it starts spinning . Satwik very early into a rally at the net, is a neat idea overall. 

Shivani Naik

Aaron tries the fast drive serve and he nearly misses the back line! The Indians 2 points away from taking the game. 

A terrific smash by Chirag to Aaron's backhand side gives the Indians 9 game point opportunities. 

Another brilliant service return from Satwik.

Gets the serve back and hits a brilliant third-shot winner. 9 point lead here. 

Just as the Malaysians were closing in, Satwik with a great return of serve. 

Chirag with a brilliant late adjustment from the deep forehand corner after mistiming his jump. And the shuttle doesn't return. 15-8.

Terrific serve from Chirag catches Soh in two minds. 16-8.

This is a good phase for the Malaysians now. 

A 49-shot rally! That is another sensational point. This time the Malaysians take it for 8-12. Satwik did superbly to hang in on the defence with some flat returns. But eventually Chia's power game from the back cout seals it. 

Oh a brilliant late adjustment from Aaron to turn defence into a winning shot. That makes it 5-9.

And then a Satwik special from the front court this time makes it 10-5. Chirag showing they can rotate superbly. 

A brilliant cross-lift from Satwik, from literally the top of the tape, lands in and the Indians have a superb 11-5 lead. 

59 shot rally in men's doubles where first Aaron Chia and then Satwik seemed to be controlling it though defensive lifts (!!!) for 5-2, and finished by a Chirag smash. Fantastic start for Indians to go 9-3 up

Shivani Naik

This is already a very good start by the Indians as Satwik's serves give something to think about for the Malaysians. 

A five-point lead at 7-2.

Make that 6 points after Chirag with some brilliant defense, gets back up and kills the rally at the net. 

The run comes to an end after a good third-shot winner from Aaron. 

The Indians get the serve back and Chirag hits a nice drive serve winner to start things off. 

The first developed rally of the match sees the Indians go to their defensive positions quickly. They keep the rally going but Soh's smash to kill the point is too good. 

A super Satwik smash gets the erve back for the Indians. 

Another developed rally, one of the longest ones of the match for sure. The Malaysians are on defence early, they are really good too. And then the Indians go into the defensive position.. before Chirag hits a superb midcourt smash. 

A 59-shot rally! WOW. 

Warmups done. Players all ready to go.

HERE. WE. GO.

As always, a warm greeting between all four players. Should be another cracker. One year & a few weeks after Chia-Soh beat Satwik-Chirag at this very venue at this very stage in Paris last year.

A look at the last three meetings, alll of which have been won by the Malaysians.

Here we go then. 1.30 am IST and we are all set for Satwik-Chirag vs Chia-Soh. Friday Night Live!

In their rivalry that stretches back to TATA Open India International Challenge in 2017, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty briefly found a window where it appeared they had found the solutions against Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik. After going 0-8 in their first meetings, Satwik-Chirag won three in a row in a stretch between Indonesia Open 2023 and India Open 2024.

But after their 13-21 17-21 defeat in 42 minutes on Saturday at Changzhou Sports Center Gymnasium in the semifinal of China Open Super 1000, Satwik-Chirag have lost thrice in a row against the world No 2 from Malaysia. It appears once more that the pair that tormented them for so long, are back to being their nemeses.

Read more here.

Q. What’s the one thing you can anticipate about your partner?

Shetty: If Satwik makes a mistake, he gets angry in Telugu. If he’s very upset, he starts scolding himself in Telugu.

Rankireddy: Chirag is just unbelievably consistent at the front court. He’s one of the best and even on an off day, if I need to step up, he doesn’t take long to come out of a bad run of points, 10 points at most and he’s back to a good level. That I can predict.

As the wait continues, here's a fun Q&A from our Satwik-Chirag interview before Paris 2024....

Q. Gangnam Style or Macarena or Naatu Naatu?

Shetty: Gangnam Style or Naatu Naatu. We are trying to learn Naatu Naatu, hopefully, in some tournament, we can pull it off. 

Rankireddy: I actually love dancing on Arabi Kuthu – Halamithi Habibo. (It’s a Pooja Hegde – Thalapathy Vijay number). We tried after winning the Delhi semifinal, but it didn’t come out well.

After 51 mins of action... we have a decider in this women's doubles match, to absolutely no one's surprise!

The wait continues for Satwik, Chirag, Chia and Soh but this is utterly gripping women's doubles badminton nevertheless. 

“They say you’re the city of love, and I can’t tell you how much I love you.” That was Satwiksairaj Rankireddy’s caption for his Instagram post in March last year after he and Chirag Shetty won their second French Open title. It is something of a tradition for both Satwik and Chirag to post photos in front of the Eiffel Tower after their visit to Paris. It’s a city where they have had many memorable moments throughout their careers. In 2019, they put together a sensational run ,beating their idols, the Daddies, Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan in the second round, and then accounting for two more dangerous pairs on their way to a final.

Then came the two titles in 2022 and 2024, the latter in the tune-up for the Paris Olympics, establishing themselves as one of the medal favourites.

But what’s love without heartbreak? At the Olympic Games, where they carried the hopes of Indian badminton and were seen as even contenders for gold, they suffered a quarterfinals defeat. Read more here.

Satwik-Chirag describe what changed against China’s top pairing of Liang-Wang: 

Though they have beaten the Chinese earlier – twice actually Asian Games team event and Korea semis – the head to head was 2-6 in favour of the Olympic silver medallists past few years. Far too cunning and adept at court craft, Weikeng and Chan typically would trouble the Indians on flat exchanges, change of pace, net control by Wang and sudden acceleration by Weikeng. In fact the Indian’s relative slump had been triggered by the Chinese – the 2023 China Masters and early 2024 Malaysia Open had sowed doubts in Indian minds about finishing, losing both finals to the Chinese.

August 2024: Satwik-Chirag vs Chia-Soh, Paris Olympics quarterfinal (SatChi lost)

August 2025: Satwik-Chirag vs Chia-Soh, Paris Worlds quarterfinal (Result?)

The scarring of Olympics is never to be forgotten though, and how it made them feel. But Paris offers redemption. “We have played enough big stage matches, Thomas Cup final that changed our whole career on how to handle situations. Especially team events are really special. Once you handle that you can really….we have played few good matches, Olympics also we have played here. It’s a repeat of Olympics, maybe same court, same place, we meet them. This tournament we are not looking at opponents, just focussing on ourselves. Play and see what opponents throw at us,” Satwik told BWF.

(Shivani Naik)

SatChi's match will start after this women's doubles match... which could well go on for a while between two sensational Chinese pairs.

Marin and Tai Tzu-ying though have been fan favourites even in India, and life beyond badminton or on its peripheral rim appears like a glorious sunset, with the game not far behind. 

Wonder what have they been up to? Here you go.

Not quite as popular as Leon Marchand, their swimming champion, but the French have taken a liking to their badminton players, three of whom made pre quarters in men’s singles. That’s 3 of 16. Though all lost, one of them Toma junior Popov brought the roof down playing Anders Antonsen on Thursday night. He had lost the opening set 21-6, but made a spirited comeback in the second and almost pushed the Danish World No 2 all the way.

On a day PV Sindhu missed out closely on a shot at sixth World Championships medal, Akane Yamaguchi and Chen Yufei have joined the Indian star (as well as Zhang Ning) in the five-medal elite club.

PV Sindhu's Major event record since bronze at Tokyo Olympics:

2021 World Championships: QF
2022 World Championships: DNP
2023 Asian Games: QF
2023 World Championships: R32
2024 Paris Olympics: R16
2025 World Championships: QF

How do you look at the match overall? 

Tanisha: I think the pressure really got to us today, I feel so. We could have done a lot better. It wasn't like it was yesterday, situations were very different today. But I think it's a good run and I'm proud of the way we played and the way we've taken this tournament. It's a good learning for both of us. Of course, gives us a lot of confidence for our upcoming tournaments. So I'm proud of ourselves, I'm proud of Dhruv for the show we've put up in this tournament. It's not the end, I'm sure there's something much bigger for us yet to come. 

Maybe did you want it too hard that maybe made you guys a bit more stiff? 

Dhruv: I think like we started really well, but when we had a lead, we should have converted it, but eventually we panicked a bit. Then the service-return situations, we couldn't get out of that pretty soon. Then I think I was a bit passive today. I was not getting those attacks, I was just mostly playing downwards today, so yeah, I was totally caught up with that. 

This is always going to be an uphill battle, right? 

I think it's at that given day who puts up a better show, because even yesterday we were up against a higher-ranked pair, but I think we played better, we did good, so I think it's only at that given day who puts up a better show, who has the courage to keep the shuttle in, one more time. So, yeah, nevertheless, it's okay. (smiles)

Maybe the start of more things to come? 

Dhruv: Yeah, obviously, we had a great tournament. We were not expecting that big win, but yes, now we know we are capable of beating the top pairs, Eventually, I think especially for me, I need to mentally be more prepared, I need to get these wins again to go for the medal, because quarter-finals are not enough every time, you have to get better at it. 

Tanisha: I think we're getting stuck at quarters every time. (smiles) Yeah, there's a lot more learning, still a lot more to go, a very, very long way, and I think with experience, I'm pretty sure we'll have an experience to handle these situations too, and hopefully, next time we'll come back with a medal.

Quotes via BWF

An overview

We had asked Satwik & Chirag what they like about playing at the French Open / Paris....

Shetty: We’ve just always liked it and there’s a connection with the French crowd. We’ve played really well and that run is here to stay. One thing we always do is visit the Eiffel Tower, and if we win, we go there with the title trophy. It’s the City of Lights and also the City of Love, we genuinely love the vibe there. I learnt French for 4 years in school, but I can barely speak a word.

Rankireddy: Everyone has a favourite tournament, ours is the French Open. We always play well in Paris. The home crowd supports us. The food is good as well, there’s good weather to go out and have something to eat. It’s not too hot, not too cold. So we can just go for a walk. We have a good history there.

(PS: The interview was before Olympics, but we are sure Paris still has a special place in their hearts!)