BWF rankings: Satwiksairaj Rankireddy, Chirag Shetty break into world top 20

BWF rankings: Satwiksairaj Rankireddy, Chirag Shetty break into world top 20

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The Indian men's doubles badminton pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty (aged 17 and 20 respectively) have broken into the top 20 of the BWF Rankings. The duo will be participating in the forthcoming Commonwealth Games and are hopeful of ending the men's doubles drought at the CWG.

Indian badminton has been on the rise in the last few years and year after year, there have been players who are excelling and competing against the best in the world. Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty are the latest Indian badminton stars to have broken into the top-20. 

In 2018, the duo reached the semi-finals of the Indonesia Masters and most recently were eliminated on the doorstep of the All England Open quarters. 

Their rise means that India now has seven badminton players in the world top 20 - Kidambi Srikanth is currently second in the men's singles followed by HS Prannoy at 12th place and B Sai Praneeth at 15th. In the women's singles, PV Sindhu is third while Saina Nehwal is at 12th.

Satwik and Chirag are hopeful of ending the men's doubles drought at the CWG, where they will turn out for the first time at the quadrennial games. The duo have been participating in various competitions over the last two years and have done fairly well as well. 

In 2016, they won the Tata Open India International Challenge followed by wins in Mauritius and Bangladesh. In 2017, they won the Vietnam Open international challenge where they beat former Olympic and world champion Markis Kido and his partner Hendra Gunawan to claim the title. Also in 2017, Satwik and Chirag qualified for the Glasgow World Championship and made it as far as the quarter-finals of the Korea Open and the French Open.

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