Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty have become the first Indian men's doubles pair to qualify for the season-ending BWF World Tour Finals starting in Bali on Wednesday.
Rankireddy and Shetty had reached the semifinals of the Indonesia Open last week to book the berth at the year-ending event.
The Indians had lost to the World No. 1 pair of Marcus Fernaldi Gideon and Kevin Sukamuljo 16-21 18-21.
"Fell short in the end against Kevin/Marcus today. But nevertheless happy with the way we played this week. On the positive side we have qualified for the World Tour Finals!" Shetty wrote on his instagram page.
"It's the first time we'll be part of the WTF and I can't wait to play against the top 8 pairs on tour this year! Also thank you for all the support. Appreciate it."
Earlier, Lakshya Sen had become the youngest Indian to qualify for the USD 1,500,000 tournament, which will also see the likes of Kidambi Srikanth, two-time Olympic medallist P V Sindhu and the women's doubles pair of Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy.
Srikanth, Sameer Verma, Sindhu and London Olympics bronze-medallist Saina Nehwal have competed in the year-ending tournament in the past.
While Sindhu is the only Indian to win the BWF World Tour Finals in 2018, Saina had reached the final of the BWF Superseries Finals in 2011.
Srikanth and Sameer had also reached the knockout stage in the past but couldn't enter the finals.