Thailand Open Final: Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty Pair Beat Hui-Chen To Win Maiden Super 500 Series title

The Indian pair overcame a stiff resistance from their Chinese opponents to emerge victorious in three tightly contested games finale.

atwiksairaj Rankireddy(R) and Chirag Shetty of India (Photo by Shi Tang/Getty Images)

New Delhi: India's men's doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty defeated the China's Li Jun Hui and Liu Yu Chen in the finals of the Thailand Open to win their maiden Super 500 Series title. The Indian pair overcame a stiff resistance from their Chinese opponents to emerge victorious in three tightly contested games finale with the scoreline - 21-19,18-21,21-18. After winning the opening game 21-19, the Chinese drew level winning the next game 21-18 to take the title clash to the decider. The CWG silver medalists overcame an early deficit in the third game and maintained their calm and composure to seal the contest and win the title. India's top-ranked men's doubles pair Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty had earlier qualified for the men's doubles final on Saturday with a 22-20, 22-24, 21-9 win over South Korea's Ko Sung Hyun and Shin Baek Cheol. They are the first Indian pair to reach the final of a Super 500 event. The 16th ranked Rankireddy and Shetty came out on top against the 19th ranked Korean pair. This is the first final of the season for the Indian pair and they will now face Chinese third seeds Li Jun Hui and Liu Yu Chen in the final on Sunday. The Koreans held the advantage for much of the first game and were leading 11-10 at the interval. But the Indians shifted gears after that and surged to a 20-18 lead. Hyun and Cheol then picked up two consecutive points to level the score but Shetty and Rankireddy held their nerve to take two more points and win the game.