Indian men’s doubles campaign at the 2026 badminton World Championships ended on Friday with Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty losing against World no 3 Liang Weikeng and Wang Chang of China in straight games 21-18, 21-9. With their loss, Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand remain the only Indians in the competition.

Entering the tournament as the fifth seed and home favourite, the Indian duo got a bye in the first round and a walkover in the second round. They defeated Arif and Yap of Malaysia in the third round before meeting the Olympic medallists in the quarter finals.

“They were everywhere. Wherever we were hitting, they would counter it,” a disappointed Satwik said after the match.

Story continues below this ad

The Indian duo started well in the first game. The match was going toe-to-toe with the Indian pair leading at 18-16.

However, three consecutive errors from the Indian pair at 18-18 resulted in the Chinese pair winning the first game 21-18.

“We played well in the first game. We were leading by 18 points. After we lost the first game, they became a little harder to play in the second game. We lost a lot of close points,” said Chirag after the game.

While the first game was a close one, the Chinese pair completely outplayed the Indian pair with the flat exchanges and consistent placement of drops in the empty pockets.

Story continues below this ad

“They were playing a very solid game. There were times they attacked really well and converted defence into offence,” said Chirag.

Despite the crowd backing the Indian pair, the Chinese pair raced to a big lead in the second game 21-9 to break Indian hearts.

Earlier in the day, Treesa-Gayatri assured India one medal after defeating the fourth seed Chinese pair of Jia and Zhang in three games continuing India’s streak of medals at the World championships.

The streak was started in 2011 when Ashwini Ponnappa and Jwala Gutta won the bronze medal in the women’s doubles.