Thailand Open 2024: Satwik-Chirag Clinch Second Title of The Year

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India's Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty clinched their second title of the year on BWF World Tour after straight games win over China's Chen Boyang and Liu Yu in the Thailand Open 2024 final at the Nimibutr Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand on Sunday (May 19).

The top seeds and world number 3 Indian pair, who had earlier this year won the French Open Badminton title, defeated the Chinese duo by a scoreline of 21-15, 21-15 in the men's doubles final match that lasted 46 minutes on Court 1.

This was also Satwik-Chirag's second title at the Thailand Open and the first since 2019 when they won their maiden Super 500 crown in Thailand in 2019. In 2024, Shetty and Rankireddy also finished runners up in India Open and Malaysia Open.

The Olympic-bound Indian duo were challenged by the unseeded Chinese duo in the first half of the first game, but fought back to claim a 12-11 lead after trailing 10-11 at the interval and raced to a 21-15 win in the first game.

In the second game, the Asian Games gold medallist carried the momentum and raced to a 5-point lead heading into the interval. The Chinese duo then took advantage of a few errors to get back in the match, but the Indians held the nerve and sealed the game and match 21-15.

The eventual champions always had the upper hand in the second game and just like the first won five consecutive points at the end to kick off their trademark celebrations.

"Thailand Open has been a special tournament for us as we won our first Super 500 crown here and have won many more tournaments thereafter. We are hoping that this victory will start another winning run for us," said Satwik after clinching the crown.

Speaking about their performance in the final, Satwik said they played their best game against their Chinese opponents. "We knew that we cannot relax even for a single point against our opponents as they fight till the end. But we played our best game of the tournament today and controlled the situation very well," he added.

The victory also helped the Indian combination earn 9200 ranking points and prize purse of $33180 (approx. Rs 27,63,306.40).

Earlier on Saturday (May 18), Ashwini Ponnappa and Tanisha Crasto lost the women's doubles semi-final against top seeds and Thailand's own Jongkolphan Kititharakul and Rawinda Prajongjai.

Tanisha-Ashwini pair, who are also headed to Paris for the Olympics later this year, went down fighting to by a scoreline of 12-21, 20-22 in the last four clash that lasted 43 minutes on court 1.

In the early part of the tournament, one of India's top singles player and Paris Olympics bound HS Prannoy suffered a stunning loss to lower ranked compatriot Meiraba Luwang Maisnam to make a first-round exit.