 "India Open 2024 Men's Doubles Final: Satwik-Chirag lose three-set thriller")
It was once again a heart-breaking final loss for the Indian Men's Doubles Duo Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty as they went down to World Reigning Men’s Doubles World Champion from Korea Kang Min Hyuk and Seo Seung Jae in a three-set thriller at a full-house KD Jadhav Indoor Hall in New Delhi on Sunday, January 21.
It was supposed to be an evenly matched contest, and the game lived up to its billing as both pairs were tied at 8-8 in the first game itself before the Indians took a slight lead and reached the mid-game interval at 11-9.
Indians Take First Set
The Koreans were looking to make a comeback, but the number two seed Indians didn’t give them any window of opportunity and marched to an 18-13 lead. It soon became 19-13 as the world champion Koreans were not able to receive a legal serve.
The Indians had six game points to try and win the first set, but all they needed was two of them to close the first one 21-15 in just 17 minutes.
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Usual Patterns for Sat-Chi
Sat-Chi, who have had a 4-1 head-to-head record against the Koreans, trailed 1-5 at the start of the second set and looked like once again losing their focus in the second game, as has been the case with them throughout the first two tournaments this year.
The world number two men's doubles pair were once again making many unforced errors and lost six points on the trot to trail 5-13 in the second set. They eventually lost the second set 11-21 in 17 minutes as the match went into a three-set decider.
This was the first match on the finals day of the event to go into a three-set decider. Earlier the mixed doubles, women’s singles, women’s doubles, and men's singles matches were won in straight sets.
Concede Early in Third Set
The Indians, after being 3-3, conceded an early 3-7 lead, before a successful challenge by them made it 4-6 in the decider set. The game started slipping away from them as the Koreans built momentum and led 8-4 before a booming smash from Chirag made it 5-8. However, the wow moments were few and far between for the Indian duo as the third-seed Koreans led 11-6 at the mid-game interval.
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The Need for Courage
Mathias Boe talked about having ‘courage’ during the mid-game interval. And the Indians did show courage instantly, defending madly in the very next point to make it 7-11.
Shift in Momentum
More than courage, it was smartness from Rankireddy as he did not receive the serve trailing 7-12 and then won a point on his serve to try and shift the momentum. It did shift for just a bit as the Indians won three back-to-back points to make it 10-12.
Even Miracle Shots Not Enough
In the commentary box, Gillian Clark, calling the match said it was a miracle shot as the Guinness world record holder for the fastest smash, Rankireddy was able to return a low-hanging shuttle and Chirag converted a net shot into a point to make it 16-17 for the Indians. However, those shots were again few and far between as Kang and Seo took a 19-16 lead in the third and deciding set.
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The Indians tried amazingly hard to return a lot of smashes, however, a bit of a mix-up on the part of Sat-Chi led to them conceding two match points. The Koreans needed just one to avenge their semi-final loss at the Malaysian Open earlier this month and claim the Indian Open men’s doubles title 15-21, 21-11, and 21-18 in a three-set thriller for the first time in their career.
Japanese Duo Overcome Lack of Confidence to Win Women's Doubles Title
Earlier, Japan's Mayu Matsumoto and Wakana Nagahara were crowned the women's doubles champions at India Open 2024 after they defeated Championships Bronze medallist Chinese duo of Zhang Shu Xian and Zheng Yu in straight sets 21-12, 21-13.
The Japanese duo said that they had been doing well but were unable to win a final for the last three years because of a lack of confidence.
“We are really happy that we could win the gold medal today. It is a very big thing for us and a great opportunity. We believe that it was a lack of confidence in the last three years, because of which we could not make it to the finals of major international tournaments, but today, in this match, we were confident since the beginning,” they said after their win.