Shetty-Rankireddy pair pulls out of Badminton World Championship

India's new doubles sensation Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy on Thursday pulled out of the upcoming Badminton World Championship owing to injuries. The Indian duo became the first men's doubles pair from the country to win a BWF Super 500 title last Sunday, helping them break into the top 10 ranking.

However, injuries dashed their hopes of a good performance at the upcoming prestigious tournament, scheduled to begin from August 19 in Basel, Switzerland. "Satwik's shoulder injury which he suffered at Thailand Open didn't heal as quickly as we expected, and I also had pulled up my abs during the semifinals, so we decided to skip the World Championship," Chirag told PTI.

"We spoke to the coaches and physio and they said if we play then it can aggravate and we might miss out a month or two. So being the pre-olympic year, we decided not to take any risk. "We will be playing the China Open and Korea Open in September."

In the Thailand Open, Chirag and Satwik emerged victorious from a draw that saw the participation of nine of the top-10 world ranked pairs. The Indian pair defeated reigning Asian Games silver medallists Fazar Alfian and Muhammad Rian Ardianto in the second round, before beating former world champions Ko Sung Hyun and Shin Baek Cheol in the semifinals.

They came up trumps against reigning world champions Li Jun Hui and Liu Yu Chen in the summit clash.