First Indian Badminton Duo to Reach World No. 1 Ranking

The popular Indian men’s badminton doubles pair, Satwik Sairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty have made history by climbing to the top spot in the latest Badminton World Federation (BWF) Ranking. This is the first time an Indian doubles pair has made it to the World No. 1 Rank in Badminton.

Only three other Indians have made it to the top BWF Rankings so far. However, they have only done so in singles. They are Prakash Padukone, Saina Nehwal and Srikanth Kidambi. 

This year, Satwik and Chirag have performed well in many badminton tournaments. In June, the pair became the first Indians to win a Super 1000 tournament when they defeated the 2022 world champions, Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik from Malaysia in the finals of the Indonesia Open tournament.

Satwik and Chirag rose to the second spot following their victory against the Indonesian pair in the men’s doubles at the Korea Open 2023, which was held between July 18 and 23. This was their career-best ranking until now. 

In the recently held Asian Games at Hangzhou, Satwik and Chirag won India its first-ever gold in badminton in the championship. 

The duo will be seen next at the Denmark Open Super 750, which is the second-oldest international badminton tournament in the world. The championship will begin on October 17 and will end on October 22.