Good Sports: Badminton Pair Achieve Top 5 Ranking
In tennis, India’s biggest achievements have come in doubles. But in badminton, singles players have overshadowed their doubles counterparts—at least until Satwiksairaj Rankireddy, 22, and Chirag Shetty, 25, arrived on the scene.
The pair’s achievements in 2022 include winning the India Open Super 500 title, the French Open Super 750 title, a gold medal at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games, and a bronze at the world championships in Tokyo. They also helped India win the Thomas Cup for the first time. Along the way, they rose to No. 5 in the world rankings, the first men’s doubles team from India to reach the Top 10.
“It’s been a tremendous partnership,” Shetty told The Telegraph in Kolkata. “We come from very different backgrounds and initially, it was quite tough to adjust. But once we got to know each other better and spent more time together, the results came automatically. Our off-court friendship was reflected on court. The offcourt camaraderie is, I believe, the secret of our success.”
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Compiled and partly written by Indian humorist MELVIN DURAI, author of the novel Bala Takes the Plunge.
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