A dominant Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty won their first title of the year with a 21-11, 21-17 victory against Lee Jhe-Huei and Yang Po-Hsuan in the final of the French Open BWF Super-750 tournament in Paris on Sunday. They won the French Open in 2022 but lost in the second round last year. Though they made it to the finals of the all the three tournaments they played this year, this the their first title. They lost in the finals of the Malaysian Open and Indian Open tournaments.
The Indians were so dominant on Sunday that they took just 36 minutes to oust their rivals and this was the shortest final of the day. Satwik-Chirag did not lose a single game in the entire tournament.
With renewed vigour they will now compete in the All England Championships. The unseeded Taipei pair proved no match for the Indians as they broke free from 4-4 in the first game to wrap it up at 21-11. Though Lee and Yang did well in the second, it was only till the 14th point. The Indians won seven of the next ten points. If it was Satwik’s smash that won the first game, Chirag full-blooded drive secured the match winning point for the Indian pair.
Late on Saturday, Lakshya Sen suffered a three-game loss against world champion Kunlavut Vitidsarn of Thailand 22-20, 13-21, 11-21. On Sunday, Kunlavut lost to China’s Shi Yu Qi 20-22, 21-19 in the men’s singles final. Top seed An Se Young of South Korea fought back after losing the first game to beat fourth seed Akane Yamaguchi of Japan 18-21, 21-13, 21-10 in the women’s singles final.
