• Source:JND
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BWF World Champions 2025: India's star men's doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Renkireddy and Chirag Shetty fell short during an intense semifinal of the BWF World Championship as they lost to China's Liu Yi and Chen Bo Yang. The former world No. 1 pair scripted history as they became the first Indian men's doubles pair to win multiple medals in this tournament.

They were the only Indians to have won a medal this year and made sure that the 14-year streak of Indian badminton players winning a medal has been kept alive. They had won this match after PV Sindhu's dream run had come to an end during the quarterfinal, whereas the mixed doubles pair of Dhruv Kapila and Tanisha Crasto also failed to win a historic medal in this category.

The duo of Satwik and Chirag came into the semifinal quite confident, as they had defeated the World No.2 pair of Aaron Chia and Soh Woo Yik during the quarterfinal. But they were seen struggling and couldn't maintain the streak, and thus lost the semifinal to the eleventh-seeded Li Yiu and Chen Bo.

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The Indian pair made a brilliant comeback after losing the first game, but they were outplayed during the decider as well, and thus their dreams of becoming the first Indian pair to qualify for the summit clash of this tournament ended.

They forced the semifinal towards the decider. During the third game, they were completely dominated. Liu played a brilliant serve and thus gave a hard time to Chirag, who was already seen struggling at the front court as was seen earlier.

"We didn't get a really good rhythm. We didn't start that well. We gave away easy points (in the third game). We should've been a bit smarter. But, credit to them. They served quite well," Chirag told reporters during the post-match presentation.

"They played with much more confidence. The body language showed. They were enjoying the outing much more than we were. We played well in patches," Satwik added.

Satwik and Chirag had a flying start as they were leading by 4-0 and made sure that the Chinese played defensively. They had a 9-3 advantage, but then the Chinese duo bounced back and leveled the scores at 12-12. They might have bounced back, but Satwik and Chirag lost crucial moments and helped the Chinese pair to dominate and win the first set by 21-19.

But the Indian pair then made a brilliant comeback during the second set. They were leading by 5-1, but the Chinese pair leveled the score at 16-16. Satwik's brilliant defence and Chirag's aggression helped them bounce back, and they did win the second set by 21-18. If they did win the match they they could have become the first Indian men's doubles pair to have qualified for the World Championship summit clash.

But the Indian pair lost the decider. They had a disappointing start, and that helped Liu and Chan lead by 7-0, and thus, the Induan duo struggled to find form. With the Indian pair missing key moments, the Chinese then dominated and were leading by 17-7. They did play some late rallies but weren't able to bounce back, and Liu Chen then scored their first match point at 20-12 and then eventually won by 21-12.

After losing the semifinal, India's campaign ended, but Satwiksairaj Renkireddy and Chirag Shetty still scripted history. The way they performed showed the country's growth in this category. They had won their third championship medal after they had won the bronze way back in 2022, and the same medal won by Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponappa way back in 2011.