The rise of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty has been badminton’s equivalent of India launching its first-ever sounding rocket, that quantum jump for launch vehicles 60 years ago. This tale of the two towering shuttlers has all the trial-and-error processes, all the amateurish figuring out of what works and what doesn’t, and all the professional expertise from different countries pieced together bit by bit, to finally construct an indigenous marvel.
On Saturday, Satwik-Chirag play the biggest final yet of their careers – the Asian Games summit clash, and several eyes will be glued to TV sets and mobile screens to watch if their golden dream is realised. They reached there beating the Malaysia duo of Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik 21-17, 21-12.
The World No. 1 chart-topping eventuality will follow in next Tuesday’s rankings, but the eminently watchable doubles pair would want to win a title, a gold medal at Asia’s biggest Games, to stamp their supremacy rather than a mere totalling of five digit points. Chirag was 2, and Satwik just born when the Leander Paes-Mahesh Bhupathi wave swept through to exhilarate Indians in a different racquet sport. The Asiad gold can do the same for badminton.
India doesn’t have a tradition of world-beaters in doubles badminton, though Jwala Gutta-Ashwini Ponappa did win a Worlds bronze in 2011. Indian badminton’s biggest newsmakers for a long time have been two ladies in singles, and men’s badminton needed a Thomas Cup in 2022 to get noticed, the unassuming pairing a step behind the stars in singles.
Satwik comes from Amalapuram in East Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh, Chirag from Mumbai’s western suburb of Malad, and it was Malaysian coach Tan Kim Her who brought them together. Danish doubles great Mathias Boe brought his always-ticking strategising brain and thorough sporting passion to the mix, to turn the tall duo into world-class shuttlers. Their physios and trainers are dealing with a first generation of ravaging injuries and aches, typical to the doubles power-speed game, and still learning several recovery and strengthening hacks along the way.
They run into pedigreed Koreans in the finals, and India’s first men to make the Asiad final are up against a compulsive history-making nation.
Opponent Choi Sol-gyu won the world juniors coming through a doubles system that has thrown up champions for more than 70 years. Kim Won-ho’s mother is Gil Young-ah, the 1996 Atlanta Olympics mixed doubles gold medallist, and the first Korean woman to be head coach of a professional team. When Kim tells the media after his semis, “Now we have one last game left, I want to win the gold medal no matter what,” he speaks bolstered by a legacy of winning that runs through their blood.
Another Korean pairing beat Satwik-Chirag in the team event, and though unseeded, Choi-Kim will have the entire might of an assembly-line system that scythed through rankings to win the World Championship title last month.
Unstoppable force
What the Koreans might run into is dizzying ambition and dazzling capability in power-packed badminton, the fierce pride in trendsetting that the two Indians treasure and an unbridled style of attacking play that is the envy of most doubles staples. Satwik-Chirag were on an unstoppable smashathon when they won the Korea Open earlier in the year, raining down power hits and making retrieving impossible for opponents. The two have the world’s two fastest smashes, measured at a shuttle laboratory, and in matchplay.
They won Indonesia, Korea and the Asian Championships, playing different styles. When they thumped Aaron-Soh, the former world champions in Friday’s semis, it was all geometric incisions with angles and placement in gaps, exploring the empty right flank of the Malaysians. Satwik’s defence was compact in the front, and Chirag stomped with laser-beam precision thwacks from the back-court – they usually play in reverse positions
The Malaysians were left cribbing about the Indian serve and time taken in reception, and were slapped with a yellow card for the prattle. The Indians spread out their attack to the whole court and were far from predictable and resorting to slam-bang. Make no mistake, they ace the slams and bangs, but didn’t need to on the day, because their racquet work struck lengths that pushed Aaron-Soh into awkward defending contortions.
The Indians negated Aaron’s deft forearm, and frustrated Soh by swishing the shuttle past his nose. At one point, the Indians found themselves on the same side of the court, but Chirag sprinted across to cover the other flank and find a winner. Both bent low for the steep defence, and Satwik had a ‘tweener in a frenzied rally. He stood his ground when a string came undone, prepared to use his racquet frame if required. The Indians won on pure geometry without needing to hit fifth gear of power-hitting.
The Koreans will come armed with tactical nous chiselled over decades. The Indians will land up knowing that despite being their country’s first generation of doubles pros, they are second to none