New Delhi, 1 May (Hindustan Times). The men’s doubles final of the 2023 Badminton Asia Championships and the first game is tied at 13-13. The game was heading towards a close end. Then, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty squandered five straight points at this most crucial juncture, and soon lost the first game 21-16.
Things were not looking much better in the second game as the Indian pair first trailed 4-10 and then 7-13. In the past, this might have been the moment when the Indian pair got frustrated, despaired and even lost the match due to misplaced aggression, but Satwik and Chirag are not the same players they were a year ago. Were. Still only 22 and 25 years old, they are already experienced players on the BWF Tour and regularly doing well in major tournaments. They stayed calm, hit their chins, stuck to their fast-paced, attacking game and pulled off a sensational comeback.
In the end, their thrilling 16-21, 21-17, 21-19 win over Malaysia’s Ong Yew Sin and Teo Ee Yee was written in golden letters in the books. Satwik said after the match, “It was a bad start in the first and half of the second game, but we didn’t give up. We kept our nerves. We know how to play in these conditions. So, we were in good shape.” We were waiting for that and then we took our chances. We were calm in the second and third games, which paid off for us.”
Chirag said, “After 13-8 we tried to play a little smarter. The serve was something that worked really well for us; it caught them by surprise. We were very calm defending as well. “This final was not for the faint hearted; It was a tasty, nervous contest. The improvement in the mental strength of the Indian pair has been noticeable. In an interview in December 2022, he talked about staying calm under pressure – an important aspect of his game that he had been working on with coach Mathias Boe. Satwik had said that he was the calmest in the partnership while Chirag was aggressive.
“We want to stay calm, play like a mature pair and don’t rush…when we don’t think much about the situation, it becomes easier to win,” he said. won only the second Indian gold medal in the 1960s, and the first in 58 years. They are also the first doubles pair to reach the final of the event.
Asia is the heartland of the sport of badminton, with almost every major medalist in the sport coming from the continent (Carolina Marin and Viktor Axelsen being the exceptions here). The men’s doubles draw this year featured names such as reigning world champions Aaron Chia and Soh Wooyik, reigning Olympic champions Li Yang, Wang Chi-lin, Fajar Alfien and Muhammad Riyan Ardianto and the greats Mohamed Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan, who will now compete this year. There are two Super 1000 top seeds and winners.
Satwik and Chirag are champions in this field, it is a huge achievement.
Both these players have been injured in four months of this year. Injuries had forced the duo to pull out of their title defense at the India Open this January and then had to leave midway through the Madrid Masters in March. But both of them made a great comeback and now with two titles in the upcoming competitions, both of them will move forward with increased confidence.
