Indian shuttlers Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty kicked off their Thailand Open 2026 campaign with a hard-fought victory at the Nimibutr Stadium in Bangkok on Wednesday. The top seeds, currently ranked fourth in the world, overcame Indonesia’s unseeded duo Putra Erwiansyah and Bagas Maulana with scores of 21-19, 23-21, 21-10 to secure their spot in the second round.
After a slow start that saw them trailing 16-11, the Indian pair mounted an impressive comeback, winning seven consecutive points to gain control and narrowly edge out the first game. The second game saw momentum shift as the Indonesians fought back from an 11-9 deficit to force a tie-break, which they won to level the match. However, Satwik and Chirag ensured no further setbacks by dominating the decisive final game from start to finish, closing out the contest in one hour and four minutes.
Next up for the Indian duo is Malaysia’s Bryan Jeremy Goonting and Muhammad Haikal. Rankireddy and Shetty are aiming for their third Thailand Open title, having previously won the BWF Super 500 tournament in 2019 and 2024.
Later in the day, India’s MR Arjun, Hariharan Amsakarunan, and the women’s doubles pair of Rutaparna Panda and Swetaparna Panda are set to compete in their opening main draw matches. In men’s singles qualifying, Manav Choudhary gave a tough fight to Paris 2024 Olympic bronze medalist Lee Zii Jia of Malaysia but ultimately lost 21-19, 21-18. Meanwhile, Anushka Shahapurkar exited the women’s singles qualifiers after a 21-5, 21-7 defeat to Thailand’s Yataweemin Ketklieng. The mixed doubles pair of Mohit Jaglan and Lakshita Jaglan also fell in the qualifiers, losing 21-11, 21-18 to Tsai Fu-Cheng and Sung Yu-Hsuan of Chinese Taipei.
India has sent a strong 27-member contingent to compete at the BWF Super 500 tournament in Bangkok this year.
