Satwik, Chirag pull out of BWF World Tour Finals

India’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty pulled out of the BWF World Tour Finals due to a knee injury to Satwiksairaj.

Satwiksairaj Rankireddy (right) and Chirag Shetty play their Group ‘A’ contest against Kim Astrup and Anders Skaarup Rasmussen on Wednesday. Satwik and Chirag have been playing non-stop since October.

India’s Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty were forced to withdraw from men’s doubles in the ongoing BWF World Tour Finals after Rankireddy complained of knee pain.

Satwik and Chirag had lost 21-16, 21-5 to Denmark’s Kim Astrup and Anders Skaarup Rasmussen in their opening Group ‘A’ round-robin match here on Wednesday and handed a walkover to top-seeded Indonesian pair of Marcus Fernaldi Gideon and Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo in Bali on Thursday.

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Satwik and Chirag, ranked 11th in the World, had become the first Indian men’s doubles pair to qualify for the tournament after its impressive performance - a semifinal finish - at the Indonesia Open last week.

‘World C’ships more important’

“Actually, Satwik has been having knee pain for a couple of weeks now. We didn’t really have the time to rest it so he had to play with it. We have decided to rest it now so that we can be ready for world championships,” Chirag told PTI . “The injury hampers his movement so we decided better to rest it for a couple of days. Because worlds is more important,” added the 24-year-old from Mumbai.

The Indian duo has been seeded eighth and handed a first round bye at the World Championships which will be held in Huelva, Spain, from December 12 to 19. Satwik and Chirag are looking forward to competing in the Championships.

Asked how Satwik sustained the injury, Chirag said: “He had this since the Olympics but it resurfaced again.”

Satwik and Chirag have been playing continuously since October.