Satwik-Chirag's Heroics Weren't Enough: India's Badminton Men Fall 1-3 to China, Settle for Bronze

India's men's badminton team fell 1-3 to China in the semi-final at Aichi-Nagoya on September 23, ending their run at the Asian Games 2026 one tie short of a gold-medal match. They'll take home bronze instead.

Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty opened the tie and delivered, beating Liang Weikeng and Wang Chang 21-11, 22-20 to put India 1-0 up against the tournament's top seed.

China won the next three rubbers to close out the tie 3-1.

The bronze-winning squad: Arjun M. R., Ayush Shetty, Chirag Shetty, Dhruv Kapila, Hariharan Amsakarunan, Lakshya Sen, Prannoy H. S., Satwiksairaj Rankireddy, Srikanth Kidambi, and Tharun Mannepalli.

Satwik and Chirag stayed unbeaten across the team event, extending a run that's made them the pairing every draw fears right now. India's individual events are still to come, with medal chances remaining in both the singles and doubles draws.