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Satwik-Chirag storm into Thailand Open 2026 doubles final

Webdunia | May 16, 2026 10:40 PM CST

India’s Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty moved one win away from the Thailand Open 2026 men’s doubles badminton title after beating Malaysia’s Goh Sze Fei and Nur Izzuddin in the semi-finals in Bangkok on Saturday.

The Indian badminton players, champions in 2019 and 2024 and top seeds at this edition, came from behind to beat the third-seeded Malaysians 19-21, 22-20, 21-16 in a contest that lasted one hour and 22 minutes.

Both pairs are former world No. 1 shuttlers. With the win, Satwik-Chirag entered their first BWF final of the 2026 badminton season. Their last summit clash came in September at the China Masters.

The opening game was evenly poised until 7-7 before Goh Sze Fei and Nur Izzuddin raised the tempo. The Malaysians opened up an 11-8 lead at the mid-game interval and stretched their advantage to 15-9 after the restart.

Satwik and Chirag responded with a four-point burst to close the gap to 18-16. However, the Malaysians held firm to edge the first game, according to olympics.com

The Indians led 9-6 early on in the second game, only for their opponents to claw back and draw level at 13-13. At 20-20, Satwik and Chirag held their nerve and won the next two points to force a decider. The Indian duo carried that momentum into the third game.

After the scores were tied at 5-5, Satwik and Chirag reeled off six consecutive points to take an 11-5 lead into the interval. They extended the advantage to 16-8 and closed out the match to make the final of the BWF Super 500 tournament.

This was Satwik and Chirag’s eighth win against the Malaysian pair in 10 head-to-head meetings. Satwik and Chirag had reached the semi-finals after a commanding 21-12, 21-13 victory over Japan’s Takumi Nomura and Yuichi Shimogami in the quarter-finals.

The Indians will face either Indonesia’s Leo Rolly Carnando and Daniel Marthin or the People’s Republic of China’s He Ji Ting and Ren Xiang Yu in Sunday’s final.India’s challenge in the singles events ended on Friday and Lakshya Sen and PV Sindhu went down in their respective quarter-finals.