Asian Games, badminton: Rankireddy-Shetty clinch first-ever gold medal, script history
Indian star men's doubles, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty scripted history at the 2023 Asian Games in Hangzhou by bagging the gold medal. The Indian men's doubles duo defeated South Korea's Choi Solgyu and Kim Wonho 21-18, 21-16. This is India's first-ever Asian Games gold medal in badminton men's doubles event. Also, this is India's 26th gold medal of the ongoing event. Here's more.
Second-ever Asiad medal for India in badminton men's doubles
As mentioned, this is India's first-ever Asian Games gold medal in badminton men's doubles event. Overall, this is India's second Asiad medal in this event as Leroy D'sa and Pradeep Gandhe clinched the bronze medal in 1982. So Rankireddy-Shetty won an Asian Games medal for India in men's doubles after 41 years.
Rankireddy-Shetty attained the World Number 1 ranking
Rankireddy-Shetty are the first Indian men's doubles pairing to achieve the World Number 1 ranking. Overall, they are the fourth Indians to achieve this feat. Prakash Padukone (men's singles) was the first-ever Indian shuttler to achieve World Number 1 ranking followed by Saina Nehwal (women's singles), who achieved it in 2015. Kidambi Srikanth was the last Indian to be the World Number 1 (2018).
Head-to-head: Rankireddy-Shetty 3-0 Choi-Kim
The Indian duo have had the upper hand over the South Korean pairing of Choi and Kim. The Indians hold a 3-0 record over the South Koreans. Before this final, Rankireddy-Shetty defeated them in the Malaysia Open round of 32 clash this year by a scoreline of 21-16, 21-13. They defeated them last year 21-18, 21-14 in the French Open semi-finals.
A look at the accolades of the star badminton duo
Rankireddy-Shetty have won seven BWF World Tour titles while finishing runners-up twice. Three of the titles have come in 2023. They have also won Commonwealth Games silver in 2018 followed by a gold medal last year. The duo bagged the Asian Championship gold this year before winning the historic Asian Games gold. Rankireddy-Shetty are also the 2022 World Championships bronze medallist.
A look at their form this year
Rankireddy-Shetty have had a great 2023 as they have won three BWF World Tour titles. They won the Swiss Open, Indonesia Open and Korea Open this year. They clinched the gold medal in the Asian Championships followed by the Asian Games. The star duo have a 30-10 win-loss record in 2023. As per Mohit Shah, they have now won eight finals on the bounce.
A look at Rankireddy-Shetty's journey at the Asian Games
Rankireddy-Shetty started with a dominant win over Hong Kong's HL Chow and Lui CW 21-11, 21-16. They followed it up with a hard-fought win over the Indonesian duo of Leo Carnando and Daniel Marthin 24-22, 16-21, 21-12. The Indians defeated Singapore's Nge JJ and Johan Prajogo 21-7, 21-9 in the quarter-finals. They beat Malaysia's Aaron Chia and Soh Yik 21-17, 21-12 in the semi-finals.
