Doubles sensation Shetty-Rankireddy to miss World Championship

Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty pull out of World Championships

Bengaluru, August 16: India's latest doubles sensation Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy on Thursday (August 15) pulled out of the upcoming Badminton World Championship due to injuries.

The duo created history last week as they became the first men's doubles pair from India to win a BWF Super 500 in Bangkok, Thailand, which also helped them break into the top 10 ranking.

However, injuries dashed their hopes of a repeat performance at the prestigious tournament, scheduled to begin from August 19 in Basel, Switzerland.

"Satwik's shoulder injury which he suffered at Thailand Open didn't heal as quickly as we expected, and I also had pulled up my abs during the semifinals, so we decided to skip the World Championship," Chirag told PTI.

"We spoke to the coaches and physio and they said if we play then it can aggravate and we might miss out a month or two. So being the pre-olympic year, we decided not to take any risk.

"We will be playing the China Open and Korea Open in September."

View this post on Instagram

Well not the best of news to share with you guys. I and Satwik won’t be participating in this year’s BWF World Championships due to injuries which we were carrying through the Thailand Open. We could have played at the Worlds but there was a risk of aggravating the injury and missing out on tournaments in the future. And after discussing with the coaches and our Physios we’ve decided to give it a miss and focus on the next set of world tour events coming up in September in China and Korea. Difficult times but all we can do right now is rest so that we can come back on court as soon as possible to start our preparations for the Upcoming tournaments. Thank You for all your wishes.. we shall be back on court soon!

A post shared by Chirag Shetty (@chiragshetty) on Aug 15, 2019 at 12:35pm PDT

In the Thailand Open, Chirag and Satwik emerged victorious from a draw that saw the participation of nine of the top-10 world ranked pairs.

The Indian pair defeated reigning Asian Games silver medallists Fazar Alfian and Muhammad Rian Ardianto in the second round, before beating former world champions Ko Sung Hyun and Shin Baek Cheol in the semifinals. In the final, they defeated reigning world champions Li Jun Hui and Liu Yu Chen.

India will also miss mixed doubles player Pranaav Jerry Chopra, who is also expected to sit out as per the latest reports. His partner Sikki Reddy will however be seen in Basel with regular women's doubles partner Ashwini Ponnappa.

(With inputs from PTI and Agencies)