India’s pinnacle doubles pair, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, became compelled to withdraw from the ongoing BWF World Tour Finals after the former complained of knee pain.
Satwik and Chirag, ranked 11th in the World, had ended up the first Indian guys’ doubles pair to qualify for the distinguished season-finishing tournament after completing the semifinal stage of the Indonesia Open Super One Thousand tournament ultimate week.
The Indians had lost sixteen-21, five-21 to Denmark’s Kim Astrup and Anders Skaarup Rasmussen in their starting Group A spherical-robin in shape right here on Wednesday. On Thursday, they handed a walkover to the top-seeded Indonesian pair of Marcus Fernaldi Gideon and Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo.
“Satwik has had knee aches for multiple weeks now, and we didn’t have the time to relax it, so he had to play with it. We have decided to rest it now to prepare for global championships,” Chirag instructed PTI.
“The damage hampers his motion, so we decided to rest it for a couple of days. Because worlds are more crucial,” added the 24-yr-vintage from Mumbai. The Indian duo has been seeded eighth and handed a first-round bye on the World Championships held in Huelva, Spain, from December 12 to 19.
The Commonwealth Games silver medallists, who had to pull out of the 2019 edition of the World Championships because of injuries, are looking ahead to competing in this edition. Asked how Satwik sustained the harm, Chirag said: “He had this since the Olympics, but it resurfaced once more.”
Satwik and Chirag were constantly playing in October, having participated in the Thomas and Uber Cup Final, Denmark Open, French Open, Indonesia Masters, and Indonesia Open earlier than qualifying for the World Tour Finals. They gained all their suits in the Thomas Cup and completed the quarterfinals and semifinals of the French Open and Indonesia Open, respectively.
