Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty finally nailed down the China Masters title, downing local hopes He Ji Tung and Ren Xiang Yu, 11-21, 21-13, 21-17 showing a fightback that has defined the whole week.
It was a Chirag Shetty smash bang down the middle of the court — a ploy the Chinese had been using the whole match, that finally earned the Indians the title that had eluded them twice after making two finals previously. The Indians also had a semifinal from 2023 at Shenzhen.
What this week showed was how the Indians are capable of shrugging off deficits before turning it on at the endgame – on Sunday, even dropping the first set 21-11 unlike . The opponents were lower ranked, but the Chinese came out swinging in all three sets – 0-5, 1-3, 0-4 starts for Indians as He-Ren went aggressive with deep pushes. Where the World No 5 pairing showed peak vintage form, was in coming back from trailing situations to finding solutions to every poser put forward by He-Ren.