Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty created history as they became the first Indian men's doubles pair to win the Badminton Asia Championships title. They ended drought of 58 years on Sunday, becoming the first Indians after Dinesh Khanna to be crowned champions at the tournament.
The duo made it to the summit clash after their opponents retired midway through the semifinal game on Saturday. This will be India's first men's doubles medal at the continental event after 52 years. Rankireddy and Shetty had earlier made it to the historic semifinals after beating Indonesia's pair of Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan 21-11 21-12 in the quarterfinals on Friday.
The star shuttlers scripted a sensational comeback after an opening game reversal to beat the Malaysian combination of Ong Yew Sin and Teo Ee Yi 21-16, 17-21, 19-21 in a nail-biting final.
Khanna is the only Indian to claim the gold medal, having achieved the feat when he beat Thailand's Sangob Rattanusorn in the men's singles final in 1965 at Lucknow. India's previous best performance in men's doubles at the Asia Championships was a bronze-medal finish by Dipu Ghosh and Raman Ghosh in 1971.
PM Narendra Modi lavished praise for star shuttlers.
"Proud of Satwiksairaj and Chirag Shetty for scripting history by becoming the first Indian Men's Doubles pair to win the Badminton Asia Championships Title. Congratulations to them and wishing them the very best for their future endeavours," PM Modi tweeted.
"This DUO DOES INDIA PROUD!! Congratulations to Satwik-Chirag on their historic win as they enter the Badminton Asia Championships Semi Final and bring in a medal for the country in this tournament after 52 years," Anurag Thakur tweeted.
PV Sindhu and HS Prannoy had lost in the quarterfinals in the women's and men's singles respectively. India star shuttler PV Sindhu bowed out of the quarterfinals of the women's singles as she suffered loss to second-seed An Se Young of Korea. On the other hand, HS Prannoy, India's ace shuttler also lost in the quarterfinals. Kanta Tsuneyama of Japan defeated him. Their compatriot Kidambi Srikanth bowed out of the tournament in the round of 16. Srikanth lost to the fourth-seeded Japanese Kodai Naraoka.
