Chirag Shetty said, “Paris is like a second home for us.”

Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, the top-ranked doubles team in India, are very delighted with their victory at the French Open. The pair won their first championship of 2024 on Sunday in the Arena Porte de la Chapelle in the French city, defeating Lee Jhe-Hui and Po-Hsuan Yang of Chinese Taipei 21-11, 21-17 in 37 minutes.

The Paris Olympics badminton tournament will take place at the same location in around six months (from July 26 to August 11), which is why Shetty thought this victory was so noteworthy. “It’s extremely special to win this at the location of the Olympics.” For us both, Paris has always had a particular place. Here, we’ve always performed well. For us, it like a second home. After the victory on Sunday night, Shetty said, “I’d be lying if I said that we didn’t enjoy this title more because it’s at the Olympic venue, but having said that, the Olympics are still six months away, and there are quite a few tournaments before that which we must focus on.”

Chirag and Satwik overcame a 4–4 deficit to win the next five points in the first game of the final, increasing their advantage to 17–10 and ultimately winning 21–11.
In the second game, which was tightly contested, the score was 14–14 at one point. After that, the Indians jumped out to a three-point lead and won the game. We were a little nervous in the second game, but we reminded ourselves that we had to keep having fun and that it didn’t matter if we dropped a point or two. We eventually found our groove,” Satwik said.

The All-England Championships in Birmingham will start on Tuesday, and the two Indians will be participating in them.