China Masters 2023: Satwik-Chirag Go Down Fighting In Thrilling Final

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Shenzhen (China), November 26: India's Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty on Sunday (Novemeber 26) failed to win their fourth BWF Tour title of 2023 following a hard-fought loss in the China Masters 2023 final at the Shenzhen Bay Gymnasium in Shenzhen, China.

The top seeded Indian pair los the men's doubles final to the second seeded pair from China, Liang Wei Keng and Wang Chang in a three game thriller by a score line of 19-21, 21-18, 19-21 in an hour and 11 minutes.

The Asian Games champions fought back from a game down to force a decider, which in the end went in the favour of the Chinese duo as both pairs were engaged in a gruelling contest on court 1.

With this result, the Chinese pair of Liang and Wang take a 3-1 lead in the head-to-head record against the Indian duo, who had won their most recent meetings in straight games earlier this year.

Satwik and Chirag, who kept India's challenge alive in the China Masters 2023, had won the Badminton Asian Championships, Indonesia Super 1000, Korea Super 500, Swiss Super 300 and the Asian Games gold medal in a stellar year.

Earlier on Saturday (November 25), the fifth-ranked Indian duo got the better of home favourites He Ji Ting and Ren Xiang Yu by a scoreline of 21-16, 22-20 to book their final.

While Satwik-Chirag pair kept India's challenge alive until the final, the men's singles challenge ended when HS Prannoy lost the quarterfinal match on Friday (November 24).

The world no. 8 Prannoy went down in straight games 9-21 14-21 to Japan's world championships silver medallist Kodai Naraoka in a lop-sided last eight contest.

Meanwhile, the likes of Lakshya Sen, Kidambi Srikanth, Priyanshu Rajawat, Aakarshi Kashyap as well as doubles pair Rutaparna Panda and Swetaparna Panda all crashed out in the opening round of their respective events.

Earlier on Wednesday (November 22), Sen and Rajawat suffered straight games loss to China's Shi Yu Qi and Japan's Kenta Nishimoto repectively before Srikanth went down fighting in three games to fourth seed Kunlavut Vitidsarn of Thailand.

Later, women's doubles pair of Swetaparna and Rutaparna suffered a straight games loss to China's Zhang Shu Xian & Zheng Yu by a scoreline of 15-21, 9-21 to bow out in the opening round.

On Tuesday (November 21), the lone women's singles player from the country competing at the China Masters, Kashyap crashed out in the first round following straight games loss to Zhang Yi Man by a scoreline of 12-21, 14-21.