Satwik-Chirag become first Indian pair to win men's doubles match at BWF World Tour Finals

The Indian ace men's doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty started their campaign with a win at the 2025 BWF World Tour Finals in China on Wednesday.

The duo defeated the home favourites and the Paris Olympic silver medalists pair of Liang Wei Keng and Chang Wang 12-21, 22-20, 21-14 in a tight three-game affair.

Fighting back from a game down, Satwik-Chirag showed some great attacking shots in the final game to register just their fourth win against Liang-Wang in their 11th meeting.

First-ever win for India in men's doubles

This was also the return of Satwik-Chirag at the World Tour Finals after 4 years, following the 2021 edition. That campaign, however, had abruptly ended after their opening group match due to a knee injury sustained by Satwik.

This win now also makes them the first Indian pair to win a match in the men's doubles discipline at the World Tour Finals.

A fightback

The Indian pair had a very bad start to the match as they looked a bit clueless against the flat exchanges of the Chinese duo in the opening game.

They lost the first game in just 12 minutes, without offering much fight and looked out of touch. But then, they made a brilliant comeback in the second to gain a massive 18-12 lead.

However, they were once again pushed to backfoot by the Chinese duo and were a match point down at 19-20, but kept their composure and somehow won the game to force a decider.

The final game had a much closer start, with no pair getting more than a 1-point lead till the mid-game. But after that, the Indian pair found their touch and started their well-known attacking play.

This put the pressure on Liang and Wang, who started to make errors, and this time the Indian pair made full use of it and closed the game rather comfortably to give a winning start to the tournament.

The duo are now in a joint top position in Group A alongside Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi-yik of Malaysia, who defeated their Indonesian opponents earlier in the day.