Satwik-Chirag bow out in semis of World Tour Finals, settle for bronze
Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty’s dream run ended with a semi-final loss to China’s Liang Wei Keng and Wang Chang at the BWF World Tour Finals 2025 in Hangzhou. The Indians settled for bronze despite winning the opening game convincingly
Hangzhou: India’s pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty saw their impressive run at the BWF World Tour Finals 2025 come to an end in the semi-finals, going down 21-10, 17-21, 15-21 to Paris 2024 Olympics silver medallists China’s Liang Wei Keng and Wang Chang.
The Indian duo started strongly, taking the opening game in commanding fashion, but the Chinese pair turned the contest around in the latter stages to advance, while the Indians settled for bronze.
Indian shuttlers have only ever won two medals at the BWF World Tour Finals. The only gold medallist from the nation remains PV Sindhu, who won the women’s singles title in 2018.
Third-ranked Satwiksairaj and Chirag got off to a poor start against world No. 5 pair Liang Wei Keng and Wang Chang, who seized an early 4-1 lead. The Indians retaliated immediately and never looked back after tying the score at 5-all. Sat-Chi dominated the rest of the game to win the opener 21-10.
The Chinese pair bounced back in the second game, winning crucial points to force a decider at 21-17. In the third game, Liang Wei Keng’s flick serves and Wang Chang’s control at the net proved decisive, leaving the Indians stranded.
Satwik-Chirag have now lost eight of their twelve encounters with the Chinese duo, five of those defeats coming in 2025. Earlier this week, Sat-Chi won both their group stage matches at the BWF World Tour Finals and the round of 16 at the BWF World Championships.
