The World No. 11 doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty has become the first Indian men’s doubles pair to qualify for the season-ending BWF World Tour Finals starting here on Wednesday.
Satwik and Chirag had lost in the semifinals of the Indonesia Open last week but made the cut after the Japanese pair of Akira Koga and Taichi Saito also lost in the last four at the Super 1000 tournament.
The Indians thus leapfrogged the Japanese in the Road to Bali to book the berth at the year-ending event.
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“Fell short in the end against Kevin/Marcus today. But nevertheless happy with the way we played this week. On the positive side we have qualified for the World Tour Finals!” Chirag wrote on his Instagram page.
Earlier, Lakshya Sen had become the youngest Indian to qualify for the $1.5 million tournament, which will also see K. Srikanth, P.V. Sindhu and the women’s doubles pair of Ashwini Ponnappa and N. Sikki Reddy in action.
Srikanth, Sameer Verma, Sindhu and London bronze- medallist Saina Nehwal have competed in the year-ending tournament in the past.
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While Sindhu is the only Indian to win the BWF World Tour Finals in 2018, Saina had reached the summit clash of the BWF Superseries Finals in 2011.
Srikanth and Sameer have made it to the knockout stages.