India’s Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty lost to China’sLiang Wei Keng and Wang Chang 21-9, 18-21, 17-21 in the Malaysia Open 2024 men’s doubles final here on Sunday. The match lasted an hour and 58 minutes.
Satwik-Chirag began the battle for the final slot with a bang by displaying aggressive badminton. They took an 11-4 lead heading into the break after picking holes into the Chinese defence to swing the momentum in their favour.
On the restart, the Indian pair pushed their sustained efforts, and the unforced errors from the Chinese pair gave them the stick to weather out their rivals. The first game was over in just 13 minutes, putting the Indian pair ahead 1-0 in the finals.
Expectedly, the Chinese response came in the second game. Keng and Chang managed a five-point lead over their rivals as they looked determined before the break. On resumption, Satwik-Chirag looked assured and garnered points and reduced the gap to just one point at 19-18.
However, the Chinese pair just about managed to win the second game and force the final encounter to a decider.
The Indian pair made their intent clear early in the deciding game with a blistering smash, and Satwik repeated his out of his stable. The Asian Games gold medalist came up with baking-hot shots to take a 10-3 lead.
Keng and Chang sprung back with a blazing hunger and brought the scores to par 12-all before taking the lead at 14-13. From there on, they lay hold to the match and wrapped it up in under two hours.
This was the Indian pair’s fourth loss to the Chinese duo in five meetings. Results at the Malaysia Open will count towards players’ qualifying rankings for the Paris 2024 Olympics.
