“Koi jeeta kya (Has anyone from India won before)?” Satwiksairaj Rankireddy had asked his badminton doubles partner Chirag Shetty. “Silver or gold or played the final?”
Rankireddy got the answer finally when the duo was on the podium, after defeating Ong Yew Sin and Teo Ee Yi in the final of the Asia Championships in Dubai nearly two weeks ago. “He (Shetty) told me after the final. I was on the podium and I asked him, are we the first? I had no idea. I thought Sindhu didi (P.V. Sindhu) or Saina didi (Nehwal) may have won gold.”
Rankireddy and Shetty became only the second Indians—across categories—to win a gold medal in the Asia Championships after Dinesh Khanna’s singles title 58 years ago. The sixth seeds won all their matches without dropping a game till the final, though neither admits that it was a dominant performance.
“I wouldn’t say we dominated, but we played some really good badminton in the pre-quarters and quarter-finals, where we won convincingly,” says Shetty while Rankireddy adds that it was “one of our best performances”.
Along the way, the Indians beat third seeds Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan, which was a confidence booster for them. “It has always been close against them. To beat them in such a convincing manner (21-11 21-12)… they have always been our idols,” says Shetty, 25.
“We were able control the shuttles well, especially service and return was really good,” says Rankireddy, who is three years younger. “That was one of the reasons we were able to win the pre-quarterfinals and quarterfinals convincingly (21-13 21-11 and 21-11 21-12, respectively).”
The Asia Cup win has added to a strong start to 2023 for Rankireddy-Shetty, who made it to the semifinals of the Malaysia Open in January, won the Swiss Open in March, though their All England campaign just before that ended in the second round.
“We are mentally strong now,” says Rankireddy. “We felt like we were playing in front of a home crowd (in Dubai). We were mentally stable through this tournament.”
He credited partner Shetty for “always playing his 100 percent when needed in the final. When things were not going well, he stepped up and did things to make it easy for me at the back court throughout the tournament. I got a lot of openings—his serving and finishing was nice—I just needed to hit the shuttle to the other side and he took care of it. It was one of the best performances in recent times for Chirag.”
The pair said some of aspects they have been working on are defence and trying to avoid injuries as far as possible. “If we are able to do that, we can win more big tournaments. That’s one thing we focusing on, to keep ourselves fit,” Shetty adds.
Some of their success is owed to the new-found confidence they have since helping India to a Thomas Cup team title—for the first time ever—last year.
“One thing that’s changed since the Thomas Cup is now we are used to playing big matches and we handle pressure much better. We have become calmer in such situations,” says Shetty.
“We got the belief that we can beat anyone on a given day because the way we played in the (Thomas Cup) final, that was one of the biggest pressure matches of our entire life and we have won that,” Rankireddy says. “After that win in the final, we felt we could handle all situations. Even when we are down, we feel we are in control, that it’s just a matter of time.”
Currently number 11 as per the Badminton World Federation (BWF) rankings, 2023 brings a number of significant events for the pair, including the upcoming mixed team event Sudirman Cup (May 14-21 in China), Asian Games (from September 23 in Hangzhou, China) and the World Tour Finals in December, besides trying to qualify for next year’s Paris Olympics.
“We want to maintain our fitness and break into the top 3 (rankings),” says Rankireddy, while talking about one of their immediate goals.
They say they are getting better with experience, having been in tough situations and knowing how to handle them. “We would not be winning every time,” says Shetty, “but when you have experience, you would be able to win most of the times and that’s one of the things that’s helped us.”
Rankireddy adds: “The more you play pressure matches, you will get the experience. The more you play in finals, the more you get used to the crowd and atmosphere. We would love to play more finals.”
He says last year’s title at the India Open in January, again beating Ahsan and Setiawani in the final, and then the Thomas Cup set the tone for their ambitions. “From then we wanted this atmosphere every time we played a tournament. Our target was to get into the semifinals and quarterfinals. Now our target has changed. Whenever we play a tournament, we are going for a win.”
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