Sat-Chi’s rise to the top of world badminton

Satwik Sairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty have become the first Indian men’s doubles pair to reach the number 1 world ranking.

Everything that Satwik Sairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty touch somehow magically turns into gold. The sight of these two stalwarts of Indian badminton taking their shirts off and dancing to celebrate big wins is becoming increasingly common. ‘Sat-Chi’ have pretty much become an unstoppable force in the world of badminton.

At the Asian Games, however, the scene was different. Satwik lay down flat on the floor and bowed to his coaches, Pullela Gopichand and Mathias Boe, touching their feet. This was fitting given the enormity of what they had just accomplished.

A first ever gold medal for India in badminton at the Asian Games on the final day of the tournament completed a fairytale month of competition for the nation as they hauled their best ever medal tally. It is a feat that not even the greats like Syed Modi, Prakash Padukone, PV Sindhu, Saina Nehwal or even Gopichand could achieve in their legendary careers.

Satwik and Chirag have ventured into a territory where no Indian has gone ever before, and they’ve done it in the fashion of champions!

It’s been an incredible year and a half for the Indian stars as they’ve scripted one historic moment after another. They’ve already won five titles in 2023 - Swiss Open Super 300, Badminton Asia Championships, Indonesia Open Super 1000, Korea Open Super 500 and now the Asian Games. The Badminton Asia Championship gold was also a historic first for India in that competition.

Further history was made on Tuesday with Satwik and Chirag climbing to the number 1 spot in the men’s doubles IWF world rankings.

They are the first Indian doubles pair to take the apex spot and have joined a list that includes Prakash Padukone, Saina Nehwal, and Kidambi Srikanth to have reached the top of the World Badminton rankings.

As a result of their form and resilience, they had pretty much arrived to the Asian Games as favourites. But being the favourites and living up to the tag are two completely different tasks and over the course of their latest campaign, Sat-Chi have once again shown why there is so much hype and buzz about them in the Indian sporting circuit.

In their five matches in the doubles event at Hangzhou, they dropped just one game - in the second round. They dominated their nemesis pair, Malaysia's Aaron Chia and Soh Wooh Yik, in the semifinals and made multiple mini-comebacks in the final against an inspired Choi Somgyul and Kun Wonho.

They even made winning the gold medal in Asian Games look easy. It’s not.

The continent of Asia dominates the sport of badminton and the tournament was being hosted in China, the reigning long-standing badminton powerhouse.

On the podium, Sat-Chi were accompanied by the reigning Olympic champions and last year's World Champions as they both won bronze medals. In another rare occurrence, there were no Indonesians or Chinese on the podium this time.

What shines the most about their game is the relentless belief and the unbridled self respect that they have. Satwik and Chirag are unfazed by any challenge or any opponent. There’s no doubt that the limelight will be on them even more as they build towards the Olympic Games in Paris.

The onus will be on them to deliver, but if their past performances were allowed to talk, they would say one thing: they are inevitable.

‍