Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty lost 12-21, 23-25 to Indonesia's Leo Rolly Carnando and Daniel Marthin in the final of the Thailand Open, as their wait for a first BWF World Tour title since May 2024 continued.
It was a sensational result for the Indonesians, who had a 0-4 head-to-head record against Satwik and Chirag before this afternoon. To add to that, this was Marthin's first tournament in a year, having been out with a serious knee injury. It was Carnando and Marthin's first tournament as a pair for two years. So for them to take the title without dropping a single game is a fantastic achivement.
They started right on the front-foot, with Marthin's huge smashes from the back-court generally being met with no response from the Indians. To add to that, Satwik and Chirag didn't help themselves with an error-strewn performance, that just isn't adequate to win finals at this level.
The Indians went down early in the first game, and never looked like threatening carnando and Marthin throughout. The Indonesians' dominance only grew as that first game wore on. Eventually, they reeled off five straight points at the end of it to win it 21-12.
Satwik and Chirag were much better to start off the second game, particularly Chirag, who had struggled to find his range in that first game. He purred around the front court, and executed some brilliant points, but the Indonesians never allowed the Indians to get too far away from them.
Eventually, they needed five match point opportunities to close the match out, as Satwik and Chirag fought gamely to the end. However, the Indians will reflect on the final being a case of them being well beaten by the better pair on the day.
You can relive the final, as it happened, in our live blog below: