Jakarta, Brimming with confidence after breaking their title drought in Singapore, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty will look to make it a double celebration in a week’s time when they open their campaign in the Thailand Open Super 1000 badminton tournament starting here on Tuesday.
The former world No.1 pair of Satwik and Chirag are seeded fourth here and will open their campaign against the Malaysian combination of Kang Khai Xing and Aaron Tai.
On Sunday, Satwik and Chirag fought back from a game down to clinch their maiden Singapore Open title, defeating Indonesia’s Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Shohibul Fikri in the men’s doubles final.
The victory was particularly significant for the world No. 4 duo, who became the first Indians to win the doubles title at the Singapore Open.
In fact, Satwik and Chirag’s last title victory before the Singapore Open was here in the Thailand Open in 2024. Since then, they had reached finals four times but finished runners-up on each occasion before finally breaking the drought in Singapore.
The other Indian men’s doubles pair of MR Arjun and Hariharan Amsakarunan will take on another Malaysian pair of Nur Mohd Azriyn Ayub Azriyn and Tan Wee Kiong.
If both the Indian pairs win, they will face each other in the second round.
In women’s singles, PV Sindhu, who exited in the quarterfinals in Singapore, will open her campaign against Busanan Ongbamrungphan of Thailand.
If she progresses to the next round, the double Olympic medallist might face nemesis and top seed An Se Young of Korea, against whom she had lost in the quarterfinals of the Singapore Open.
The loss in Singapore extended Sindhu’s winless run against the reigning Olympic champion to nine matches.
Young will take on Neslihan Arin of Turkey in her first match.
Among other Indians in women’s singles, Malvika Bansod will take on seventh seed Pornpawee Chochuwong of Thailand, while Unnati Hooda too has a tough opener against world No. 12 Nozomi Okuhara of Japan.
Lakshya Sen, who also exited in the quarterfinals of the Singapore Open, will take on Alwi Farhan of Indonesia in his men’s singles opener, while Kidambi Srikanth will be up against Japan’s Yushi Tanaka.
Ayush Shetty will face Weng Hong Yang of China, while HS Prannoy will meet Ireland’s Nhat.
The mixed doubles pair of Dhruv Kapila and Tanisha Crasto, who made history at the Singapore Open by reaching a maiden semifinal appearance at this level, has a tough opening encounter as they will take on the third-seeded Malaysian duo of Chen Tang Jie and Toh Ee Wei.
The other Indian mixed doubles pair of Rohan Kapoor and Ruthvika Shivani Gadde will be up against Yang Po-Hsuan and Hu Ling Fang of Chinese Taipei in their opener.
The only Indian pair in women’s doubles, Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand, will take on Indonesia’s Febriana Dwipuji Kusuma and Meilysa Trias Puspitasari in the opening round.
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