As they stood on the podium at the Adidas Arena in Paris on Sunday, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty felt a variety of emotions. They had the bronze medals around the neck, their second at the World Championships but felt the colour could have been different. They, after all, had beaten two of the best pairs in the world – China’s Liang Weikeng-Wang Chang, Malaysia’s Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yiki – to get to the semifinals, but then lost to a pair ranked a couple of places lower than them in Chen Bo Yang and Liu Yi. But there was also satisfaction to be standing on the stage where they had envisioned themselves last year at the Paris Olympics. For Chirag, it felt like redemption after the year they had had. For Satwik, it was a moment to remember his father, who passed away earlier this year. For India, it meant the streak of medals that began in 2011, is alive.
Speaking to The Indian Express from Paris on Sunday, Satwik-Chirag looked back on their week in Paris and discussed what’s next.
What does this medal mean to you?
Satwik: It’s been a tough season for us, on and off the court. Things were not in place mentally, physically. So many things in the background. But still fighting for the place in the top eight, and still hunting for that podium finish. At the right time we picked up. Yes, a little disappointed too. We could have gone a little further. But before coming here, we wanted to beat these two pairs. Especially the Chinese, then obviously Aaron-Soh, the way we played, I was happy that we are not so behind. We are up there. We settle with bronze, next we will see in Delhi.
You must have been remembering your father as well.
Satwik: Definitely. I was talking to mom about that only when I called on Saturday. She couldn’t sleep as well. She was saying how dad would have been so happy, he’d have been calling everyone. And he’d have been the one talking to the press. But now house is very quiet. So I told her to take Dad’s phone and just talk with everyone! (Smiles) Just switch on his phone and talk in whatever language she was comfortable with. We laughed about that. Then I talked with my brother. On the podium, I was feeling quite emotional. Seeing the Indian flag. Just last year, we thought we would be standing here, same place. Now, after one year, we are standing, but without him. Life goes on.
Especially given everything that you guys have to do to, and stick together. It wasn’t always easy.
Chirag: It’s been a very difficult year. There’s a lot more than meets the eye. There are plenty of things that people don’t see. We both are very disappointed because, yes, we could have played a final. But with the way things have been over the past year, winning a medal… we wouldn’t have even thought of it. To come here with the draw that we had, it was quite a tough draw, to be honest, right from the first day itself. It was never easy to beat pairs we’ve not had a comfortable time with, at a major event and come out there and beat them and come here and win a medal.. it’s definitely great what we’ve been able to do. Wouldn’t say we are entirely happy. But when I look back over the year that we’ve had, I think it’s a very special medal.
Chirag Shetty left, and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy pose on the podium after winning the Men’s Doubles bronze medal at the Badminton World Championships (AP Photo)
What’s been the difference between coach Tan Kim Her’s first stint and now?
Satwik: It’s completely different, like first half and second half. Last time, we were very young, we used to just follow him, whatever he tells us. We just used to listen to him. But now, it’s two-way. We share our things, what is working and what is not working. We are just mainly focusing on the service and receiving, most of the time in the practice. It hasn’t helped that we have been injured and we had hardly one week of 100% practice. We are also focussing on the spin serve, trying new things in the first 3-4 strokes. games have speeded up, everyone is playing very fast in the first four strokes.
So, you guys are working on your own spin serves? We saw a couple from Satwik in Macau.
Satwik: Ya, I have been trying to do the spin serve in training. In fact, actually coming before the whole two weeks, I was doing only a spin serve. But in Paris, I felt normal serve was working rather than the spin serve. Because the shuttle wasn’t spinning that much.
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You guys have won a lot of titles, won a lot of medals. But going forward, is it more about taking care of your body and not about turning up in every tournament and being choosy?
Chirag: Definitely. I know for a fact that if we are fit and fine, we will play at the highest level. We know that if we take care of our bodies, then we are right up there. It’s just a matter of time before we get back into rhythm. Like Satwik said, we’ve had a fair share of injuries and niggles even to this day. So, it’s not always hunky-dory. That’s where workload management comes in. We can’t keep pushing ourselves day in, day out. We need to know when to push and when to take a step back. For myself, I have not trained at my 100% as yet. We need to be slow and steady to reach our destination.
What are the immediate plans for the rest of the season? And is All England the next big goal?
Satwik: When Tan coach came, the target was this year’s All England. Then the World Championship. Then, for sure, I told him, we have to play World Tour Finals, no matter what. No matter what, these three tournaments are very major for me. Unfortunately, All England, things weren’t right. Then yeah, I think with World Championship, coach is a little happier. Beating the Malaysians, he was more happy actually! (laughs) He doesn’t like losing to the Malaysians. We are looking forward to the World Tour finals as well. So, we want to end the season on a good note. And as Chirag said, managing the workload as well. Not to rush ourselves, play in our comfort zone and see where we go.
Just looking ahead a little bit. You’ve had issues with the spin serves in the past. And in the semifinals the flick serves from Chen-Liu made it tough in the defeat.
Chirag: The flick service, yes, it did catch us off guard that night. We didn’t really expect them to do that many flicks because in the previous matches that we saw, they were not flicking as much. We were also sort of pushing forward. Credit to them that they were serving quite well in the front serves as well. That’s why we were trying to take it as early as possible. And they were mixing it with flick serves. They always kept us guessing. Having said that, we could have been a little calmer and accepted the fact that they are serving well, and just needed to focus on the next 3-4 strokes rather than going for an attack on their serve.
It means you guys have something to look forward to.
Chirag: There’s always something to work towards. Even when we were at our best, when we were world No 1, I felt there were plenty of things that we had to improve on. We still have a lot of things to improve on, to look forward to in practice.
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How good was that feeling to beat Chia-Soh in the quarterfinals? Considering what happened last year in Paris…
Chirag: Right after we got the final point, I think that was the moment when we felt really happy. After last year’s disappointment, we sort of in a way got a redemption, for the way we went out last time in a closely fought match at the Olympics, where we would have wanted to go and get a medal, but weren’t able to. This time around, the same stadium, same city, same round – the quarterfinals – we were able to beat them. For me, there was extreme happiness right there on the court, but as we left, it went off. The focus was on the next match.
