SATWIK AND CHIRAG FINISH RUNNERS-UP IN FRENCH OPEN

PARIS:INDIAN men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty’s best efforts went in vain as they lost to top seeds Marcus Fernaldi Gideon and Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo of Indonesia in the final of the French Open here.

The duo suffered a 18-21, 16-21 loss in 35 minutes to Marcus and Kevin, who are enjoying their 121st week as world No 1. Satwik and Chirag, who now trail the Indonesians 0-7 in career meetings, had won their maiden Super 500 title at the Thailand Open in August.

Despite the loss, the duo’s effort is commendable as this is the first time an Indian doubles pair has reached a World Tour 750 final. Partho Ganguli and Vikram Singh Bisht were the last all Indian pair to win the French Open in 1983. In singles, Kidambi Srikanth had won the men’s title in 2017 while Saina Nehwal was the only other Indian to make it to the women’s final in 2012.

“We have a similar kind of game but we made mistakes. We should have slowed down the game. It was not nerves, may be if we could have won the first game, things could have been different,” Chirag said. “We made slow starts in both the games in the final. Kevin and Marcus dominated the first seven points but we fought back to 17-17. With a bit of luck and better shot selection we could have won. We are happy with the way we played this week. It has been pretty good seven days. I would rate it the second best because of course Thailand Open win was the best we played.”