Bangkok, May 12: In a thrilling start to the Thailand Open 2026, India’s former world number one duo, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, showcased their prowess. Competing at the Nimibutr Stadium in Bangkok, they secured a hard-fought victory in the BWF World Tour on Tuesday.
The top-seeded pair, currently ranked fourth in the badminton world, defeated the unseeded Indonesian duo of Putra Ervian Syah and Bagas Maulana with scores of 21-19, 23-21, and 21-10, advancing to the second round. They will now face Malaysia’s Gunting Brian, Jeremy, and Haikal Muhammad in the Round of 16.
Despite a slow start in the Round of 32, where they trailed 11-16, the reigning Asian Games champions made a remarkable comeback, scoring seven consecutive points. This allowed them to take control of the match and narrowly win the first game.
The second game saw a shift in momentum. After falling behind 11-9, the Indonesian pair rallied back, pushing the game to a tie-break, which they won, forcing a decisive third game.
However, the Indian stars ensured they faced no further difficulties. They dominated from the start of the final game, finishing the match in just 1 hour and 4 minutes.
Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty are now eyeing their third Thailand Open title, having previously won the BWF World Tour Super 500 series twice in 2019 and 2024.
On a disappointing note for India, another men’s doubles pair, MR Arjun and Hariharan Amsakaran, exited the tournament in the first round after losing to Taiwan’s Lin Yu-Chieh and Chen Chih-Re with scores of 18-21, 20-22. In women’s doubles, Rithaparna Panda and Swetaparna Panda also lost their opening match to Taiwan’s Chih-Chun Lin and Yang Chu-Yun, with scores of 9-21, 11-21.
In men’s singles qualifiers, Manav Chaudhary put up a strong fight against Malaysia’s Lee Zii Jia, the bronze medalist from the Paris 2024 Olympics, but ultimately lost 9-21, 18-21. Anushka Shahpurkar also faced elimination in women’s singles qualifiers, falling to Thailand’s Yataveemin Ketkliang with scores of 5-21, 7-21.
The mixed doubles journey for Mohit Jaglan and Lakshita Jaglan ended in the qualifiers as they were defeated by Taiwan’s Tsai Fu-Cheng and Sung Yu-Hsuan with scores of 11-21, 18-21.
India has sent a large contingent of 27 members to participate in the BWF Super 500 tournament in Bangkok this year. Among the other Indian players, Ayush Shetty will compete against Japan’s eighth-seeded Kodai Naroka, while Tarun Mannepalli faces another Japanese player, Koki Watanabe. Kidambi Srikanth will begin his campaign against eighth-ranked Loh Kean Yew, and seventh-seeded Lakshya Sen, currently ranked 11th in the world, will start his journey against Jay Heng Jason Le.
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