Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty's bid for a second consecutive BWF World Championships semi-final came to an abrupt end on Friday, 21 August, as China's Liang Wei Keng and Wang Chang defeated the Indian pair 21-18, 21-9 in the men's doubles quarter-finals at the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium in New Delhi. The defeat, completed in just 35 minutes, ended India's men's doubles campaign at the tournament.

First Game: A Tight Contest That Slipped Away

The opening game was a far closer affair than the scoreline of the second suggests. Liang and Wang moved out to a 3-0 lead early, their aggressive attack creating immediate problems for the fifth-seeded Indian combination. Satwik and Chirag gradually found their rhythm, drawing level and even edging ahead 11-10 at the mid-game interval.

The Indians maintained a slender lead after the restart, but the Chinese pair stayed in close pursuit. At 18-18, the game hung in the balance. A powerful smash from Liang that Chirag could not return put China ahead 19-18, and two successive errors from Chirag — one into the net, another beyond the baseline — handed the opening game to the Chinese.

Second Game: China Take Full Control

The second game was a starkly different contest. Satwik and Chirag struggled to rebuild momentum and allowed their opponents to establish a 6-1 lead. By the interval, the deficit had stretched to 11-5, leaving the Indians facing an almost impossible recovery.

Liang and Wang dictated the pace throughout the second half of the game, while the Indian pair could not summon the attacking response that had kept them competitive in the first. The Chinese closed out the match 21-9, completing a comprehensive victory.

India's Campaign and What Remains

The defeat ended India's men's doubles challenge at the 2025 BWF World Championships. Satwik and Chirag had arrived in New Delhi as defending bronze medallists, having reached the semi-finals in the previous edition before losing to China's Chen Bo Yang and Liu Yi. This time, another Chinese combination proved too strong at the same stage.

Notably, the only Indian representatives remaining in the tournament are the women's doubles pair of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand, who had earlier secured a semi-final berth, guaranteeing at least a bronze medal for India.

Context and What's Next

The loss underlines the continued dominance of Chinese men's doubles pairs at the highest level of the sport. Liang Wei Keng and Wang Chang have been among the most formidable combinations on the circuit, and their clinical second-game performance reflected the gap that opened up once the Indians lost their foothold. Attention now turns to Treesa and Gayatri, whose semi-final run carries India's remaining medal hopes at this edition.