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The top Indian duo of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty settled for bronze in the ongoing 2022 BWF World Championships. They had assured themselves of the medal after qualifying for the semifinals on Friday, August 26. They became the first Indian men's doubles pair to win a medal at the World Championships.
In their semifinal clash on Saturday, the 2022 Commonwealth Games champions went down in a hard-fought battle against the Malaysian duo of Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik.
The final scoreline read 22-20, 18-21, 16-21 in a match that lasted for nearly an hour and 15 minutes.
In addition to their historic bronze medal, Satwik and Chirag will also take pride in their performance in the quarterfinals. The Indian duo stunned World No. 2 pair of Takuro Hoki and Yugo Kobayashi, who were also the defending champions.
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With a bronze medal win, the Indian duo secured India's second doubles medal in the history of the World Championships. Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa had won the bronze medal at the 2011 edition of the event in the women's doubles category.
The duo of Satwik and Chirag have also extended India's all-time medal tally in the World Championships to 13.
In the 2022 edition of the World Championships, in the absence of double Olympic medallist Sindhu, India returned with just one medal.
Though their campaign in the BWF World Championships ended with a loss, Indian fans were full of praise for the pair of Satwiksairaj and Chirag. They expressed their opinions on Twitter.
Also read: Tamil Nadu teenager Sankar Muthusamy jumps to World No. 1 spot in junior BWF rankings
India's overall record at BWF World Championships
PV Sindhu alone has won five medals in the badminton world's top event, the most by an Indian shuttler. She also became the first Indian to become the world champion, in 2019. Her other medals include two silvers and two bronzes.
The World No. 7 opted out of the 2022 BWF World Championships after suffering a left foot stress fracture during the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games.
Among the other medallists are former World No. 1 Saina Nehwal (silver and bronze), Kidambi Srikanth (silver), Lakshya Sen (bronze), B Sai Praneeth (bronze), and Prakash Padukone (bronze).
