Harpal Singh Bedi
Chirag Shetty-Satwiksairaj Rankireddy, on Tuesday earned the distinction of becoming the first Indian doubles pair in history to take the world No. 1 spot, according to the latest BWF World Rankings .
Popularly known as “Sat-Chi”, Satwik and Chirag climbed two spots in the BWF rankings after a historic gold medal in the recently concluded Asian Games badminton men’s doubles event in Hangzhou. They defeated Kim Wonho-Choi Solgyu of Korea in the final to add to their incredible haul in 2023.
The Indian pair won their first title of the season at the Swiss Open in March. They went on to win a gold medal at the Asian Championships Dubai in April as well.
In June, Shetty and Rankireddy won their first BWF World Super 1000 title by clinching the Indonesia Open. They defeated the world champions Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik of Malaysia in the final to become the first men’s doubles team from India to win the event.
The duo followed it up with a victory at the Korean Open and the Asian Games as well to surge to the top of the rankings.
They add to a list of other Indians, Prakash Padukone, Saina Nehwal and Kidambi Srikanth, to have reached the summit of the Badminton World Federation World Rankings.
PV Sindhu, despite missing out on a medal at the Asian Games moved up by two positions and is ranked 13th in the women’s singles. Former world No. 1 Saina Nehwal, the London Olympics bronze medalist, stays at world No. 54.
Meanwhile, HS Prannoy and Lakshya Sen dropped one position each and are ranked No. 8 and No. 15, respectively, in the men’s singles category. Kidambi Srikanth rises one spot and is 20th in the same rankings.
In the women’s doubles, top-ranked pair of Gayatri Gopichand and Treesa Jolly climbed one position to take the 16th position while the duo of Rohan Kapoor-Sikki Reddy retained their world No. 38 -rank to be India’s top pair in mixed doubles.