China Masters: Satwik-Chirag roar back to lay down marker for Asian Games

It was redemption of sorts for India’s irrepressible Satwik-Chirag duo in the men’s doubles final of the China Masters 2026 in Shenzhen on Sunday, 6 September. Exactly two weeks after floundering at home in the quarter-finals of the BWF World Championships, the former world no. 1 pair showed their character once again, rallying to tame the Chinese world no. 4 pair and create history.

Ranked fifth in the world, the Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty pair showed remarkable resilience. After losing the first game 11-21, they struck back 21-13, 21-17 to wear down He Jiting and Ren Xiangyu and become the first Indian players to win a title in the BWF 750 event since its inception in 2005. Sunday’s victory handed the Indian duo their fourth BWF Super 750 crown, having won the French Open in 2022 and 2024 before lifting the Singapore Open title earlier this year.

What’s more important, the ‘Indian Express’ of badminton have now laid down the marker ahead of their title defence in the Asian Games doubles in Aichi-Nagoya later this month. The badminton competition will run there from 20 to 29 September.

The China Masters triumph was also Satwik and Chirag’s 10th career title. They have now won the event three times, in 2023 and 2025, with a semi-final appearance in 2024. The razor-sharp performance on Sunday was in sharp contrast to the way the Indian pair succumbed to Liang Wei Kang and Wang Chang of China, the Olympic silver medallists, in straight games in New Delhi in the third week of August.

It remains to be seen how Rankireddy, who has been battling a right shoulder injury throughout the year — forcing the pair to pull out midway through the Swiss Open, Indonesia Open and Badminton Asia Championships — manages to cope with it for the rest of the season.

In Shenzhen, He Jiting and Ren Xiangyu raced to a 5-0 lead in the first game and maintained their advantage to take the opener. Satwik and Chirag conceded early points in the second game but drew level at 6-6. A three-point burst then helped the Indian shuttlers build momentum as they went into the mid-game interval 11-7 ahead.

The fourth-seeded Indian pair then stretched their advantage and, despite a brief fightback from He Jiting and Ren Xiangyu, won the final four points of the second game to force a decider. The Indians then had to play catch-up once again in the deciding game after conceding the opening four points.

They gradually worked their way back into the contest and drew level at 7-7, but were unable to move ahead as the Chinese pair continued to hold a slender 11-9 advantage at the interval. Sat-Chi, in fact, trailed 17-16 at one stage before a strong finish saw them win five consecutive points. They drew level at 17-17 and took the lead for the first time in the game, closing out the contest to seal the title.

The victory extended Satwik and Chirag’s perfect head-to-head record against He Jiting and Ren Xiangyu to 3-0. The Indians had also beaten the Chinese pair at the China Masters in 2023 and the Malaysia Open in 2024.