Satwik-Chirag, Singapore Open 2025 Badminton Quarterfinal Highlights: SatChi outplay world No 1 with masterful display

7 of the top 8 seeds in men's doubles are in quarters at Singapore Open. The 8th team - unseeded Satwik-Chirag, who beat seeded Gutama-Isfahani earlier. 

And Singapore is only a tune-up to the big one at Indonesia next week. Badminton stays brutal week after week. This is 4th straight week of competition and a 5th to go at Indonesia.

Shivani Naik

The path to final littered with Malaysians for Satwik-Chirag. Aaron Chia - Soh Wooi Yik next. 

World Rank 2. That's no biggie.

But, last faceoff - the Olympics heartbreak. 16-21 in decider for Indians after being 14-11 up. That one will haunt forever. Aaron-Soh have always troubled Indians until the last lulling home stretch to Paris when they broke through. But it's 3-9 H2H in what is perhaps the biggest rivalries for Satwik-Chirag. It's also a clash of pure badminton philosophies in MD.

But good opportunity to pick Tan Kim Her's brain on what they can do differently.

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And it will be another India-Malaysia clash on Saturday. Former world champions Aaron Chia / Soh Wooi Yik [3] defeated compatriots Man Wei Chong / Tee Kai Wun in straight games. 

SatChi vs ChiaSoh, chapter 13 coming up. 

Here's how the second game panned out, the Indians comfortably staying ahead for the most part but for a brief wobble: 

The big question mark surrounding Satwik-Chirag recently has been around fitness and health. But today was another reminder that when they are fit and firing, boy are they fun to watch. They might be world No 27 now but if they can keep this up, and not be bothered by niggling backs and shoulders and what not, they will be a threat to anyone in the world. As the world No 1s from Malaysia found out today. 

It's not the expansive leaping smash, but the low lunge that can trouble backs bigly so it might be a good idea for Satwik to take on more loads at the net in coming days. Satwik-Chirag can attack in their sleep and it will work like it did in the win, but Chirag will need to be careful with those front court forays. 

Good semifinal to be in after never having crossed Round 2 at Singapore.

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Brilliant defensive from Satwik-Chirag and they keep the rally going, one of the longer ones in this match and in the end they put it away with the Malaysians scrambling for positions. 

Satwik-Chirag are pumped! They have out-played the new World No 1 pair and make a strong statement on their comeback! 

Brilliant 1-2 attacking from the Indians, Satwik with the pressure from the front court, and Chirag with the kill.

Well, well, well. Five straight points for the Malayisans. And suddenly this has gotten nervy for the Indians. Chirag with a couple of soft errors in this phase and he is trying to get the shuttle changed and slow things down. 

And the streak ends with a backhand error from Goh. 

The finish line in sight for the Indians. 

Izuddin is danger like they say in Mumbai, when he tumbles the shuttle at the net very very finely. Twice it's got Chirag scrambling. He was left toppled and lifting helplessly second time. Then he kept stabbing his side & back worryingly with the racquet.

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Oh a fine crosscourt backhand winner from midcourt and the change of angle completely deceives the Malaysians. 

Oh the Indians are running away with this. A big 6-point lead for SatChi as we come out of the interval. 

IN THE LEAD. At the interval a strong lead for SatChi. Chirag takes charge at the net and drives, drives, drives before drawing the error. 

Words of wisdom from Tan Kim Her and Pullela Gopichand. The Indians have the win in their sights. 

There have been barely any long rallies in this match, if we have the average rally count metric, it would be probably be 5 of 6! Finally, a longish rally, that goes the Indians way. And soon after it becomes 10-6 for SatChi, the window opening. That last point saw Satwik go wide outside of the playing lines and then comes back to finish it off. 

Very similar start to the opening exchanges in Game 2 as Game 1, all level after 10 points. 

Men's doubles gets very micro-competitive that way. Goh Sze had Chirag tumbling with a drop, Satwik avenged it moments later with a nice parabolic drop to front court. It's good fun how inspiration comes from opponents to out-stroke their stroke winner.

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Unlike Aaron Chia, these Malaysians aren't very reassured on a sustained conventional flat game. So they are getting caught there, but the full blooded attack will suffice. Got Indians the first set lead.

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Early last year, SatChi had earmarked one problem area where they were slow to start game 2 sometimes after winning game 1. Ending up conceding big leads to try and overcome. So need to start well here. "First 5 points" as Mathias Boe used to say all the time. 

Chirag backtracks and unleashes a smash from the backcourt! He can smash too, you know? The Indians have kept the Malaysians at an arm's length. And the first match point has been converted! A service return error and the Indians have the lead. 

Oh Goh gets a little bit of magic out of his racket, a brilliant touch to take the place off the shuttle and the tumbling shuttle leads to Chirag diving forward and couldn't reach. 

After a mini break in play, a service fault from the Malaysians! Massive error there. And suddenly the Indians have a three-point lead. 

This is where the Indians lost out in Delhi. The flatter exchanges are Malaysians' domain. Chirag trying to take control at the net but he ends up netting a shuttle. 

Wins and losses will keep happening. But it's simple glee, that Satwik-Chirag 1-2 smash combo, when first one and then the other leaps from behind like a smashing wave. That point at 7-7, after Satwik displaced the Malaysians with attacking pushes to backhand back corner. Then came the smash-smash attack kill. Izuddin is a tricky customer here, but the Indian attack is a tad handful for the Malaysians. If Indians can guard their flanks...

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A tweener from Chirag! But this time, the rally goes Malaysians way. But the Indians are staying ahead here comfortably enough. 

Oh dear, another service fault from Satwik. and he has a wry smile on his face. A problem that continues to persist. 

SUPER RALLY! Goh and Satwik with some physics-defying defensive shots, and after a furious flat exchange, Chirag pounces at the net and puts the shuttle away. 

Good old Plan A! Chirag taking control at the net and then Satwik gets the height to smash his way past the Malaysians. When things get out of the first three shots, the Indians have plenty of weapons. 

A lovely service return from Satwik to change the angle at the net and Goh sends the backhand wide to give the Indians a handy little lead at the mid-game interval. Satwik-Chirag lead 11-8. 

A service winner from Satwik, nice. A small lead again for the Indians, with Satwik taking charge at the net, controlling the serve and third shot. 

As expected very little to choose between the two pairs early on. The Malyasians have sneaked ahead... but a terrific rally from the Indians to make it 7-7. Izzuddin with a diving retrieve but Satwik and Chirag keep the pressure up. 

The moment the Indians will be given height to work with both Satwik and Chirag will pounce on the shuttle. A mini early lead for the Indians on the back of Chirag's smash and a quick net exchange. 

Be prepared for a lot of short, sharp rallies. Plenty will depend on the first three shots. An early service fault from Satwik, hopefully just getting out of the system. 

Here we go players are on the court.

Screengrab: JioHotstar

The Indians hold a 6-2 Head-to-Head advantage against Goh and Izzuddin from the previous eight meetings but the Malaysians beat them in straight games at the India Open earlier this year. They were world No 2 then, but have climbed to the summit of the men’s doubles rankings in the latest updates on Tuesday. “We lost our last match to them (at India Open) but they’re world No.1s now. Our battles with them have always been close so this should another good one,” Chirag told BWF.

Wang Zhi Yi survives a hard fight from Pornpawee, a shocking service error from the Thai shuttler at 19-18 in Game 2 proving costly. Now time for SatChi.

Chochuwong nicely threatening to push the Women's Singles match on Court 1 into decider. But Wang Zhi Yi is expected to accelerate. So Satwik-Chirag might be on court soon enough. Wang has a 18-17 lead in Game 2. 

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Malaysian World No 1 Goh Sze Fei and Nur Izuddin are old-old rivals of Satwik-Chirag and the quartet has even battled twice in experimental 11-point matches in 2016 when both were in lower rungs. Indians won both matches. Recent faceoffs have been straight sets affairs, with the Malaysians triggering the Satwik-Chirag slump with a win at India Open semifinals. The Malaysian game tends to be tricky for Indians - it's not straight cut flat-fast. They mix it up well I guess.

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Chirag Shetty has had a tough few months, dealing with injuries and alongwith the bereaved Satwiksairaj Rankireddy who lost his father, the duo are going through perhaps the toughest phase of their careers. But returning to action at the Singapore Open Super 750, Shetty made up for many days spent away from the high of competitive action, as the Indian aces defeated Malaysian Choong Hon Jian and Haikal Muhammad 21-16, 21-13 on their return. Shetty who had gone through a torrid time recovering from back issues, looked sharp alongside Satwik, and even packed in two moments of magic during the Round 1 opener.

In a video that has since become viral, Shetty is seeing on the left side during a parallel defense, and in a neat sumo squat, with sharp low returns. He sends a side swat on his right and picks the next one as a tweener, frim inches off the ground with minimal movement of his eyes and stance. 

Shetty later told the Indian Express there were two of the tweeners on the day and nailing them was a boost to his confidence. "I don't think anybody actually practices a tweener. But I got two in the match and both resulted in a point so I'm really happy that it worked out well," he said. 

In fact, in New Delhi, Satwik and Chirag admitted to being taken by surprise by the flat and furious gameplay of the Malaysians. And their height differences played a part too. "The shuttles were too fast, and they are good at their flat game," Satwik had explained after the match. "Because they are shorter than us, and their hands are very strong we couldn't really control the pace of the rallies. They were really good at blocking also whereas we were not in a rhythm." Chirag had conceded being surprised by Goh and Nur, against whom the Indians had a strong Head-to-Head record before the Malaysians' recent meteoric rise. "I think they were quite good in the service situations which we didn't really expect because probably we didn't prepare for it." In Singapore, despite the possible rustiness of their layoff, Chirag and Satwik won't be surprised with coach Tan Kim Her and mentor Pullela Gopichand behind their preparations. It should be a marker of where the Indians stand on their return to action.

Having taken the first game, Wang is being pushed pretty hard in the second game. Pornpawee fighting but not able to consistently threaten the Chinese defence.

Read by Shivani Naik

PV Sindhu, in her prime, did a good job of adjusting to the court drift conditions. The sheer discipline and patience needed to master conditions by big names like Kidambi Srikanth, Saina Nehwal or HS Prannoy and Satwik-Chirag are hugely underrated. It is something the new generation, beginning to play elite events, will need to decipher. Unnati Hooda came up against World No 2 Wang Zhi Yi on Wednesday at the Singapore Open Super 750.

She was promptly schooled in how the changing winds can completely determine your destiny if you don’t know how to demystify the drift. “It was a big lesson for Unnati in how to play in big arenas because the drift helped her a lot at first, and then went against her later. Hopefully she learns with experience by playing repeatedly with the big names,” coach and father Upkar Hooda explained after the 21-13, 9-21, 15-21 loss in the 56-minute defeat to the current top Chinese.

According to the BWF website, India’s Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty are 184 cm and 186 cm tall, respectively (average height of 185 cm) making them a towering presence in the men’s doubles circuit. “I don’t think any pair in the world has an attack as strong as the two tall Indians,” commentator Steen Pedersen said during one of the early points that they dominated in the semifinal of the India Open Super 750  earlier this year.

Their opponents on the day – Goh Sze Fei and Nur Izzuddin – are comparatively much shorter, at 171 cm and 175 cm, an average height that is 12 cm shorter. But the Malaysians stood tall in the frontcourt, out-thinking the star Indian duo with their sharp service variations and flat exchanges to register a superb straight games win, 21-18, 21-14 in just 37 blistering minutes at the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium in Delhi. Goh and Izzuddin have struggled against Satwik-Chirag in the past (trailing 1-6 in the Head-to-Head then) but they were the new world No 2 pair then. 

At the India Open clash, they played like their ranking suggested, and not their history.

In their post-match analysis, the Indians made an interesting observation about the height difference. While their physicality is a big reason for all the success they have had on tour, sometimes, it can go the other way too. “The shuttles were too fast and they are good at their flat game,” Satwik explained after the match. “Because they are shorter than us, and their hands are very strong we couldn’t really control the pace of the rallies. They were really good at blocking also whereas we were not in a rhythm.”

Column by Shivani Naik

The clamour to breach 90 metres might have gotten irritating for Neeraj Chopra, though it was a proper mystery why he hadn't yet. That it had no bearing on him winning the Olympics or World Championship or any other competition he showed up at, made the mark even more intriguing and elusive.  The 'why' wasn't about throwing shade or nitpicking, nor abstractly rhetorical. Fans genuinely wished for that 90m to happen, believed the athlete imminently capable, and were gobsmacked it hadn't yet.

(...)

For Satwik-Chirag, who've had a torrid time, this phase now is the absolute trough that Chopra might've felt himself when he was struggling to cross 90m. Knowing he's capable of it, knowing even more keenly that it needs patience. Satwik-Chirag boasted the same consistency as Chopra till their results nosedived. They remain India's strongest bets even today. But that feeling of contesting every title final, pummelling opponents with smashes, knowing they are atop the world has gone missing. For the fine duo, the 90 might well be a resurgence at the World Championship, and being in that final at their favourite haunt, Paris.

We are 20 minutes into the quarterfinals between world no 2 Wang Zhi Yi and Thailand's Pornpawee Chochuwong. This could potentially be a long drawn out match, if Wang doesn't up the ante and run away with it. Either way, SatChi will have to wait to see how this unfolds.

Chen Yufei has been to the very top of badminton. She was world No 1 – a total of 16 weeks – in an era of absolute consistency monsters like Tai Tzu Ying, Carolina Marin, and Akane Yamaguchi. She won the Olympic gold medal in Tokyo, reestablishing China’s dominance in one of their best disciplines. It was a thriller of a finale as she overcame Tzu Ying and prevented the magician from Chinese Taipei from fulfilling her dream of finally winning the Olympics gold. Yufei has won titles at the most prestigious events around the world: All England Open (x1), and Indonesia Open (x2). But last year at the Paris Olympics, she faced a heartbreak that took a lot out of her. So much so that she decided to take a break from the sport to explore life outside China, went to Australia to learn English, then returned to play this year, rejuvenated from hitting the pause button on her career, driven to reach greater heights.

And today she beat An Seyoung. Read more about her comeback here.

AN SEYOUNG'S WIN STREAK ENDS

Since her Paris 2024 heartbreak, Tokyo Olympics champion Chen Yufei took a break from the sport, went to Australia to learn English, returned to the tour earlier this year, and won the Asian Championships title. Already a pretty darn good comeback, Yufei didn't lose perspective after she won the continental title in Ningbo. She knew An Seyoung wasn't part of the tournament and conceded that she remains the benchmark to beat in world badminton today. On Friday at the Singapore Open, Yufei completed that incredible challenge: she ended An Seyoung's sensational start to 2025, bringing a close to the 27-match winning streak that the Korean world No 1 and Paris Olympics champion had been on. And that too, in straight-games, winning 21-13, 21-16 in 50 minutes.

Satwik and Chirag, making a comeback to the World Tour after a spell out on the sidelines, came back from a game down to beat seventh-seeded Indonesian duo of Sabar Karyaman Gutama and Moh Reza Pahlevi Isfahani 19-21 21-16 21-19 in a gruelling contest that lasted one hour and 14 minutes. They take on second seeds Goh Sze Fei and Nur Izzuddin in the next round. The opening game was a tight battle from the moment the Indonesians closed down an early 3-7 deficit. The two pairs were trading points, neither winning more than 3 consecutive points in the entire game. But when it mattered, the Indonesians went from 18-19 to 21-19. In the second game, the Indians stepped up on the gas from 15 to force the decider. Gutama and Isfahani and made a late charge when the finish line was in sight for SatChi at 17-13. The gap came down to a point but the Indians held their nerve to close it out 21-19.

Today, SatChi will face the newly promoted world No 1 Malaysian team, a pair they had faced earlier at India Open when they had been newly promoted to world No 2. “We lost our last match to them (at India Open) but they’re world No.1s now. Our battles with them have always been close so this should another good one,” Chirag told BWF.

Welcome to our continued live coverage of Indian badminton and today our focus is on Singapore Open Super 750 in, well, Singapore. In what used to be a familiar occurrence in the not-so-distant past, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty are India's last standing contenders at this event, as they look to build-up some momentum in what has been a stop-start journey since the heartbreak of Paris 2024. And today will be a good marker of where they stand as they take on the newly crowned world No 1 duo of Goh Sze Fei and Nur Izzuddin of Malyasia. 

Stay tuned for live updates. The men's doubles quarterfinal will begin on Court 1 after the current women's singles quarterfinal between Wang Zhi Yi and Pornpawee Chochuwong.