What came undone at Kuala Lumpur in 2024 can be mended back at Kuala Lumpur in 2025. The Olympics disappointment will fade in the rearview mirror, but for Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, a title they couldn’t quite nail down at the start of last year, an occurrence that proved ominous, is there to be fought for again.
Into the quarterfinals of the year’s first Super 1000 at the Malaysia Open, Satwik and Chirag remain the only seeded players in the doubles draw. Their 21-15, 21-15 win over Malaysian veterans Nur Mohd Azriyn Ayub Azriyn and Tan Wee Kiong was a no-fuss progress in 43 minutes, as the home pairing, ranked World No.32, didn’t take the lead even once after the 4th point of each game.
Perhaps the quarterfinals against far more contemporary competitors – Ong Yew Sin and Two Ee Yi – on Friday will get a little more interesting, and shake off complacency, if there is any. For a pair, 25 and 27, that regularly won titles before the Olympic-year stutter, these early-round wins merely used to be mentioned before the heavy duty clashes fetched up.
But they have to be careful if there’s a potential semifinal against the Korean scratch pair of Seo Seung Jae and Kim Won Ho. There was that China Masters Super 750 final in November against Seo, which didn’t bring the title for the Indians. There was a time they would go flying over such speed bumps, but not now apparently. However, they said they’re ready for another adventure.
“We missed playing on tour after the Olympics. But we are refreshed,” Satwik would tell Badminton World Federation (BWF) after the win. “Good to go again. Started again with a new coach. So it’s all new. All happy. There’s no pressure. We’re just playing our game. We wanted to play as many matches as possible. No pressure, we just want to enjoy ourselves.”
The feeling of incompleteness post their loss to Malaysians Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik at Paris peeked out of a chuckling interaction about their downtime. When asked what he missed most when being away from the tour, Satwik said, “the travelling. (When playing) we feel it’s hectic, but suddenly there was a lot of free time. Nothing to do. Only Indian biscuits and cake we were eating. We want to eat food from other countries as well. We are used to travelling. The break was refreshing mentally. But it was a mandatory break.”
A break after a medalless Olympics tends to be cruel because even after giving it their all, there’s no keepsake to take home, to attest that gruelling journey. Satwik, famously fond of Indian food even when parked in Paris, was craving the old feeling of foreign food. Also metaphorically, chomping at the biggest opponents – tough testy battles, where whatever was local gruel tasted yummy because a win was secured. It’s been that sort of a post-Olympics.
Fluid situation
Expectedly, like it happens in a year right after the Games, the medallists are still settling back, so Chinese Liang Weikeng and Chang Wang as well as Aaron-Soh, silver and bronze winners, exited on Thursday. Satwik-Chirag, however, run the risk of wanting to validate their skill at every opportunity, though they’ve been clearly told to not stress too much, and go with the flow. With no pressure.
What’s exciting of course, is them reuniting with Coach Tan Kim Her, the man who first looked at them both and got the brainwave that they could be rather good if paired together.
“Still early days,” Chirag said. “We’ve worked with him for three and a half years (starting in 2017). He’s the one who paired me and Satwik when we were youngsters just entering the Indian team. He got us to a level from where we could challenge the best in the world. Then he left for Japan. But really happy to have him back. We are still in early days, but really happy to be training under him.”
“If he wasn’t there, there would be no SatChi,” Satwik reminded.
So it’s down to their creator, if we daresay, to bring their fortunes back on track. The trouble has been that without any dramatic slide, they are down to World No.9. Chirag, always very strict on himself, hasn’t spoken much about the time away, but can get pretty restless and punishing on himself to regain the old perch, when they were once World No.1.
“After last year, we didn’t play a lot of tournaments. So the first goal is obviously to go as deep into tournaments as possible. Get back into the Top 5,” he would say, adding, “ The break has been good. Being on tour is hectic. So to have a couple of months break was good. Happy to be back on tour. Good start to the year. Looking forward to going as deep as possible into the tournament.”
There’s the India Open in Delhi next week – another missed title from last year – and the duo will need to pace themselves while balancing injury prevention and frequent feelings of wanting to go ballistic to prove that they’re still right up there. Perhaps coach Tan’s first challenge will be to not allow them to over-exert, even if they’re fresh at the start of the season. The technical changes will invariably follow, but the ambition could do with tempering and rationing, only for chosen events.
From the Indian standpoint, not much has changed, as the two remain the most consistent performers on tour. Still there was a flurry of excitement, raised hopes, before HS Prannoy lost 8-21, 21-15, 21-23 to World No.6 Li Shifeng and Treesa Jolly-Gayatri Gopichand went down 21-15, 18-21, 19-21 to Olympic champ Jia Yi Fan and new Chinese speed sensation Zhang Shu Xian.
I’m Manas Ranjan Sahoo: Founder of “Webtirety Software”. I’m a Full-time Software Professional and an aspiring entrepreneur, dedicated to growing this platform as large as possible. I love to Write Blogs on Software, Mobile applications, Web Technology, eCommerce, SEO, and about My experience with Life.
