Looking forward to its second World badminton championships medal at the Adidas Arena in Paris this August, the crack Indian men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty was up against a formidable opponent in Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik of Malaysia in the quarterfinals.

The Malaysians who had won gold in the 2021 edition of the Worlds, had a 11-3 H2H record going into the last eight clash against the Indians. Moreover, SatChi, as the Indian pair is referred to, had lost to Aaron-Soh in the semifinals of two earlier tournaments — Singapore Open (May-June 2025) and China Open (July).

The odds were heavily stacked against SatChi.

The Indians proved equal to the task, pulling off a victory in straight games. A huge victory it indeed was. As the saying goes, ‘when the goi

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