From eight straight final wins stretching back to 2022 to three straight losses in their last three finals, it’s quite the downturn for Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty.
The latest was the India Open Super 750 on Sunday, where they lost to the reigning world champions Seo Seungjae and Kang Minhyuk in front of a raucous home crowd. This came exactly a week after losing the Malaysia Open Super 1000 final to the world No 1 pair at the time – Liang Weikeng and Wang Chang.
But there’s not much to be read into it yet – not for the pair who are the current world no. 1 in a very competitive and unpredictable men’s doubles field.
Exactly a week before, they had beaten the same South Korean pair in the semifinals from six game points down to win 8 straight points and the match in a stunning fightback. Seo and Kang seemed to have learnt their lessons, playing a tactical masterclass from the mid court after going a game down.
It was one of the days when Satwik-Chirag’s best, A-game just couldn’t be sustained after taking the lead, coming under pressure from the South Koreans’ superior defence and the lack of pace in the slow conditions.
“We started off quite well in the first game, but in the second we couldn’t really start well, made a few errors and were down by 11-5. From then on, it was quite difficult to come back as they are quite a formidable defensive pair,” Chirag said after the win.
Home duo Rankireddy/Shetty ���� step up against world champions Kang/Seo ����.#BWFWorldTour #IndiaOpen2024 pic.twitter.com/dCudbd4uBm
– BWF (@bwfmedia) January 21, 2024
The strategy of not giving the Indians any height or speed worked really well in the second and third games, as the world champions silenced the very loud crowd and Sat-Chi’s attack at the same time. It will be an area coach Mathias Boe will be looking keenly at in the coming weeks.
For now, there are two ways to look at these back-to-back losses:
The most obvious one is what’s affecting them in finals; whether it is them feeling the pressure or that opponents have become more aware of their strengths and are working to tackle them – which is a natural progression at the highest level.
The other is that Satwik-Chirag are consistently going deep in consecutive weeks, which is a rare for them because of the level of competition and their past fitness issues. This is the first time they have been in finals in consecutive weeks on the BWF Tour, and that is a positive right at the start of a new season.
“We have never played two back-to-back finals in Super 500 or Super 750, so it’s a positive thing that we have been playing quite consistently. We just need to stick right and look at the bigger picture, and I know for a fact that things will eventually turn in our favour,” Chirag said.
The loss at the India Open was a marker of just how competitive the men’s doubles landscape is right now. Top seeds Liang and Wang, who won the Malaysia Open last week in a superb comeback against Satwik and Chirag, lost in the second round this week to an unseeded Thai pair. Indeed, the men’s doubles quarterfinals had representatives from 8 different countries.
In such a field, sometimes it’s regular performances that are more indicative than titles and world rankings, which change hands too often.
On their part, the back-to-back losses don’t bother Satwik and Chirag much.
Satwik, in fact, saw a silver lining in the loss that should serve as a warning to future opponents.
“I personally feel sometimes losing is better, than winning always,” Satwik said in the press conference after. That may sound strange without context, but for anyone who has followed these two enough, feelings like this are the fuel for their appetite. “I am disappointed we didn’t win, sometimes there is a lot of motivation from losing. Today losing in front of our home crowd motivates me to make them happy next time.”
“But we are still hungry, we are not satisfied. I feel that when it really matters, it will come. We just need to hang in there. We are still hungry, I feel like we are not satisfied, we are hungrier,” he added.
A hungry Sat-Chi are dangerous, as seen so many times before. Ask Aaron Chia and Soh Wooh Yik, who they beat in the semifinals; perhaps the best example of what their hunger can produce.
Up next, they said they have a long break as they are skipping next week’s Indonesia Masters to deservedly take a break after a solid start to the season. Their targets are now set on the French Open Super 750 and then the All England Championships in March, by when they will have had all the time to learn from these losses and come back even sharper.
