The world No.2 pair raced to the first game but the Chinese world No.1 pair Wei Ken Liang and Chang Wang fought back brilliantly to seal victory in Kuala Lumpur Leading 10-3 in the decider, few would have bet against Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty winning the Malaysia Open final, especially considering the form and run they have had of late.
But men’s doubles world No.1 Wei Keng Liang and Chang Wang had other ideas. Known to dig deep, especially when the odds are against them, the Chinese pair did exactly that to pull off a remarkable come-from-behind 9-21, 21-18, 21-17 victory in 58 minutes to clinch the Super 1000 title in Kuala Lumpur’s Axiata Arena on Sunday.
The top seeds achieved what they could not last time around when they lost to Indonesia’s Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Rian Ardianto in the final last year, scoring their fourth win in five outings against India’s world No.2 combine.
Though they lost in the final of the $1.3 million tournament, Rankireddy and Shetty are $45,500 richer and solidify their world No.2 ranking with 10,800 points, which has virtually sealed their Paris Olympics berth.
In a battle between the world’s highest ranked pairs, it was the Indians who drew first blood when they stunned Wang and Liang by winning the first game 21-9 in only 13 minutes.
The Asian Games champions were regularly targetting Liang, trying to draw the big smasher at the net. A back court player, Liang put too much power into his shots at the net to make regular errors, handing easy points to Rankireddy and Shetty.
After losing the first game, Liang realised that his racquet was coming down hard while rushing to the net and he made a tactical change. Wang thereon controlled the net to play their natural attacking game that levelled the contest after the second game.(HT)