Why Satwik-Chirag failed to qualify for BWF World Tour Finals 2023?

None of the Indian shuttlers qualified for the competition this year.

The Badminton World Federation (BWF) recently revealed the top eight players/pairs in each of the five disciplines for the prestigious BWF World Tour Finals. These qualifiers earned their spots based on their accumulated points throughout the BWF World Tour events within a year, vying for a significant prize pool of $2,500,000. The qualification process involves considering the top 10 performances from the best 14 tournaments held over a 52-week period.

Breaking a 13-year streak, the prestigious BWF World Tour Finals will see no Indian representation this year, marking the first absence since 2010 when it was known as the BWF Superseries Finals. Following its rebranding in 2018, this championship previously saw Indian players like Saina Nehwal, PV Sindhu, Kidambi Srikanth, and HS Prannoy showcasing their skills, carrying the Indian flag at this illustrious tournament.

Despite achieving the world no. 1 ranking in October and currently holding the world no. 2 spot, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, the men’s doubles duo, were surprisingly unable to secure a spot in the World Tour Finals 2023, despite being the best-placed Indian candidates for participation in the event.

In an exceptional season, marked by victories at the Swiss Open, Indonesia Open, Korea Open and securing gold at the Hangzhou Asian Games and Badminton Asia Championships, Satwik-Chirag were still unable to secure a spot in the season-ending championships.

One notable reason was that points from Asian Games and Badminton Asia Championships will not be counted for qualification to BWF World Tour Finals. By not taking this into account, the Indian duo accumulated 78,590 and narrowly missed out on a spot within the top eight pairs.

Also the pair registered five first-round exits and four second-round exits out of all the BWF Tour events they played this year. Exiting in the opening round couldn’t guarantee them enough points to propel higher in the race to World Tour Rankings, ultimately causing them to miss the qualification.

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Furthermore, their world no. 1 ranking was a culmination of points earned throughout the entire season. It was 2021 when they made it to the season ending tournament last time.

Liang and Wang claimed the top spot in the race to BWF World Tour Finals 2023 with 100,740 points, while Muhammad Fikri and Bagas Maulana secured the last spot with 80,800 points earned over 52 weeks.

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