Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, Sat-Chi, are appearing in their third final of the year. The world no.1 pair lost the first two (Malaysia Masters and Indian Open) but will be keen to rediscover their golden finals touch as the Olympics draws ever closer. The French Open, held at the same venues as the Paris Olympics badminton events will be, is the perfect test event, and so far it’s been a sensational run for Sat-Chi. The top seeds beat reigning world champions Kang Min Hyuk and Seo Seung Jae 21-13, 21-16 in just 40 minutes, getting one over the pair that had beaten them in the India Open final at home.
The world No 1 pair’s aim to get their first title of 2024 under their belt, though, will be put under severe stress by the in-form.Chinese Taipei pair of Lee Jhe-Huei and Yang Po-Hsuan. They may be world no.16, but Lee and Yang came into the French Open on the back of winning the German Open and continued their form against opponents of much higher calibre in Paris. They’ve reached the final after beating world no.9 Fikri-Maulana of Indonesia, world no. 3 Liang-Wang of China and world no. 7 Alfian-Ardianto of Indonesia. They will want to continue this streak against the world’s best.
The final is scheduled as the last one on court, and considering play starts at 4 PM IST with An Se Young taking on Akane Yamaguchi in the women’s final, this should start around 8 PM. You can follow our blog for constant updates on the other games, which will give us an indication as to when this match will start.
Meanwhile, yesterday, Lakshya Sen couldn’t join Sat-Chi for this finals day, after losing to reigning world champion Kunlavut Vitidsarn 20-23, 21-13, 21-11. As Zenia D’Cunha wrote on these pages, ‘despite the result, this Paris outing has plenty of positives to take back for Lakshya, chief among them being a much-needed return to form with some big wins under his belt’. You can read more about that here.
Sat-Chi LIVE at the BWF French Open final:
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