India, Aug. 31 -- Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty had beaten Chen Bo Yang and Liu Yi to clinch the Thailand Open in May 2024, the last time they won a title. It was the same Chinese pair standing between them and their first final in 15 months in Paris late on Saturday. Only this time the stakes were higher, the stage bigger.

But it proved a bridge too far as the Indian pair lost a topsy-turvy men's doubles semi-final 19-21, 21-18, 12-21 in 67 minutes to end their BWF World Championships campaign with a bronze, their second, having finished with the same medal in 2022.

"This week has been really good. (We) played some really good matches, beat pairs who we've not had a good record against. But sad that we couldn't play the fin...