BWF World Championships 2022: Shetty-Rankireddy go down in semis, settle for bronze

New Delhi: Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy lost their semi-final match to Malaysia’s Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik. Nonetheless, the Indian pair won the bronze medal, which was the first one for India in the BWF World Championships Men’s Doubles. Shetty and Rankireddy won against the defending champions to enter the semis and confirmed a medal for the country.

The India duo started well with a lead of 11-6 in the first game interval. Shetty looked like he picked from where he left and Satwiksairaj on the other hand looked back in form and avoided mistakes. After the break, the Malaysian pair showed their class and made a solid comeback to make the score 12-11. The first game ended with a tough fight and the Indian pair won it 22-20.

The second game was also a tough fight between the two pairs and the Malaysians took a one-point lead before the interval. Chia and Soh extended their lead after the break and won the game 21-18. In the third game, India had a small lead of 7-6, but a little hassle and a few mistakes here and there led to a similar scoreline at the interval. With the game running so close, the Malaysians earned their 17th point by getting lucky with the net. After that Aaron and Soh stole away the game 21-16 and the Indian pair had to settle for a bronze.

This was India’s only medal in the 2022 BWF World Championships as MR Arjun and Dhruv Kapila, the unrated and underrated pair, lost their quarterfinals while HS Pronnoy lost his quarterfinals match to China’s in form Zhao. With this medal, India’s tally in the history of the world championships goes to 13, including a gold by PV Sindhu in 2019.

Shetty and Rankireddy are having a year to remember. First, they won the Super 500 India Open, then played a major role in India’s historic Thomas Cup victory, after that they went on to win the CWG gold and now their first ever medal in the world championships.