Satwik-Chirag vs Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik Highlights China Masters 2025 Semifinal: Satwik-Chirag win 21-17 21-14

"In the first half of the year we got a lot of break because of injuries and I think right now we both are in good condition, finger crossed, and hopefully we'll continue this form," Satwik told BWF on Saturday. "Feels great, obviously. Even last week we were talking that we had played a lot of semi-finals this year Weren't able to play a final but finally we got to play a final last week, although we couldn't go on to win. We want to do better than we did last week this time around," Chirag added.

Here's how the 2nd game panned out. A tight opener but the Indians completely took over around the mid-game point in Game 1 and went on to dominate Game 2.

SATWIK-CHIRAG INTO THE FINAL!

The Indians convert their 2nd match point, and register a dominant win against their nemeses. Chirag puts away a big smash from midcourt.

WHAT A RALLY! Satwik has a moment of indecision at the backcourt, deciding really late to lift the shuttle. But he gets good length on it, and Soh actually could have left it go wide perhaps. Satwik recovers superbly in defence a couple of more times, then changes the direction with a flat push and then goes for a big smash that comes over to the other side after kissing the top of the tape.

This is now a very healthy lead for the Indians.

SENSATIONAL RALLY! Perhaps the longest of the match. The Indians on the attack early, with Chirag and Satwik rotating from back to front and left to right. The Malaysians defend it superbly and then Satwik makes the error.

The Malayisans are back in this alright.

A lovely put away from the net with his third shot by Chia and the Malaysians are back in this game!

Now Soh with a brilliant round-the-head smash to split the gap between the Indians.

Good start to the econd hame from the Indians as Chia makes another error for 3-1. Meanwhile here's how the opening game panned out.

The Indians take the lead! Satwik does on the offence from backcourt, then they shift to the side-to-side formation, Satwik closes the rally with a lovely crosscourt flat push that Chia mishits.

OH superb cross-smash from Satwik to Chia's hip that the Malaysian didn't return. Chia then makes ANOTHER error next point.

OH wow, moment of drama. Satwik's flat push touches the top of the net and the shuttle falls over to the other side. But the Malaysians think it went through the net and didn't cross it? The replay shows the shuttle did cross but the Malaysians argue with the umpire, who refers to the service judge and then sticks to the call.

A lovely high touch from Satwik at the net, drops the shuttle in front of the Malaysians for 11-11. The Indians inch ahead now but Malaysians catch up at 12-12.

Satwik does well once more at the net, Chirag then backtracks well to keep the rally going and Chia makes another error.

Oh dear, there's a familiar one, service fault for height from Chirag but he hits a superb return next point to get the serve back.

Chia with a service error as a run of four points comes to an end.

And now Chia makes a return error. The Indians are catching.

Make it a third straight error from Chia! The commentators having a chuckle about jinxing him. Chirag does really well to keep the rally alive while backtracking and then Chia goes for a smash that goes into the net.

An early loud call from Chirag in that rally... "aage ja aage ja". They have become quite adept in this formation too, with Satwik playing more often at the net. The Indians catch up at 6-6 and inch ahead with a good serve from Satwik.

Oh great defence from Chirag to react to the net cord, but Soh puts away a big smash as the Malaysians make it 7-7.

Not sure there would be too many of these, but that's a lovely longish rally between the two pairs, great defence from Satwik-Chirag to keep the point going before Chia makes an error from the frontcourt.

Players are on the court. As commentator Gill Clark reminds, this has become something of a favourite tournament for Satwik-Chirag, as they have reached semis for the third straight year. They went to the final last time around. Can they make it back-to-back?

It's the 15th meeting between Satwik-Chirag and Chia-Soh

Speaking to The Indian Express from Paris after their Worlds bronze, Satwik-Chirag looked back on their week in Paris and discussed what’s next.

Chirag: Right after we got the final point, I think that was the moment when we felt really happy. After last year’s disappointment, we sort of in a way got a redemption, for the way we went out last time in a closely fought match at the Olympics, where we would have wanted to go and get a medal, but weren’t able to. This time around, the same stadium, same city, same round – the quarterfinals – we were able to beat them. For me, there was extreme happiness right there on the court, but as we left, it went off. The focus was on the next match.

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.

Slowly but surely, the Indians are in the mix amongst those top men’s doubles pairs that revel in fast parallel contests. And Satwik, gaining in confidence, attacked the Chinese serve at the net, and sent stinging returns like a proper front court pro. His settling down in that role — though the two played side-by-side than front and back on Friday — makes the Indians fearless in a style they were uncomfortable with once, adding to them being fearsome in attack.

Shivani Naik

Satwik-Chirag's match will start after this men's singles semifinal.