It's a good sign, best is yet to come: Satwik-Chirag on semifinal finish at Singapore Open

Indian men’s doubles pair, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, show resilience and promise despite setbacks at Singapore Open.

Indian men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty were pleased with the way they challenged their higher-ranked opponents despite not being at their physical best, marking a promising comeback at the Singapore Open Super 750 badminton tournament here on Saturday (May 31, 2025).

The Asian Games champions signed off with a semifinal finish losing to Malaysia’s world No. 3 duo Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik 21-19, 10-21, 18-21.

"To come this far with the number of days we've trained and the weeks, months we've had both professionally and personally, to get back here and play a semifinal, we never really expected," Chirag said after the loss.

"So, I think plenty of positives. You always want to go deeper and win the title, but when I look back at what we faced over the past couple of months, to come back and play a semifinal is a really good start. We'll go to Indonesia now."

Satwik and Chirag had struggled to compete consistently after the Olympics due to multiple setbacks.

After a semifinal finish at the China Open last year, they reached the last four at the Malaysia and India Opens before being hit again by health and personal challenges.

Satwik suffered a major personal loss earlier this year when his father died due to cardiac arrest in February.