Satwik and Chirag reach the summit of world rankings

NEW DELHI: Star pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty on Tuesday became the first Indian doubles pair to achieve the coveted world number one ranking following their gold medal-winning feat at the Asian Games in Hangzhou.

Satwik and Chirag, who earned India’s first-ever badminton gold medal at the Asian Games in Hangzhou last Sunday, climbed two spots to achieve the numero uno position in the latest BWF World Rankings.

The duo thus joined the elite list of former world number ones, including legendary Prakash Padukone, Saina Nehwal and Kidambi Srikanth.

Satwik and Chirag, the reigning Commonwealth Games champion and Asia Championships gold medallist, had defeated South Korea’s Choi Solgyu and Kim Won-ho 21-18, 21-16 in the final on Sunday to add another title to their brimming cabinet.

Satwik and Chirag, who had won a world championships bronze last year, claimed their first title of 2023 at Swiss Open in March, before adding a gold at the Asian Championships in Dubai in April.

The duo then became the first Indians to win a BWF Super 1000 tournament when it clinched the Indonesia Open in June. Satwik-Chirag then secured the Korea Open Super 500 title to keep moving up the ranking ladder.

Among other Indians, PV Sindhu climbed two places to take the 13th spot in women’s singles despite missing out on a medal at the Asian Games, while HS Prannoy, who won a men’s singles medal after 41 years in the continental showpiece, slipped a place to world no 8.

Lakshya Sen, who won both his matches to play his part in the silver medal-winning effort in men’s team event, too dropped one spot to world number 15. Kidambi Srikanth gained a spot to 20th.

Women’s doubles pair of Gayatri Gopichand and Treesa Jolly gained one place to grab the 16th position.