In one little line, coach Tan Kim Her summed up the Indonesian style of men’s doubles gameplay as he was speaking to his wards Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty. Halfway through the opening game, the Malaysian said: “They are not going to lift.” It is a signature of Indonesian men’s doubles pairs over the years, and the Indian duo know it all too well. It meant they had to ace the service-return situations and be strong on their defence while staying low as they beat a new pairing – the familiar Muhammad Rian Ardianto and unfamiliar Rahmat Hidayat – from the land that keeps producing elite men’s doubles pairs. The Indians overcame a mid-match stumble to win 21-15, 18-21, 21-16 in 65 minutes. They will take on Takuro Hoki and Yugo Kobayashi in the semifinals, a Japanese pair who have also been mentored by Tan in the past.
Later in men’s singles, Lakshya Sen couldn’t back up his sensational win over world No 2 Anders Antonsen on Thursday, as he went down 9-21, 14-21 in just 44 minutes against world No 7 Alex Lanier. The Frenchman’s all-round game has been seen as a key part of his rise through the rankings, and it was on full display as he frustrated Lakshya on defence and found better angles on offence.
Acing the flat game
After an even start to the match, Satwik-Chirag got into a great parallel position to attack side-by-side, and after a big smash, Satwik charged forward to put away a kill at the net to open up a 5-3 lead. The Indonesians, however, never let Satwik-Chirag out of their sights, pulling back every time the Indians threatened to open up a lead. A lot of the match was, as expected, being played in the service-return situations. Satwik-Chirag went into the interval 11-9 ahead after a steep smash by a back-tracking Chirag.
Immediately after the break, the Indonesians clawed their way back to 13-13. Then came the point where the low, crouching defence of the Indians was in full display, at 14-13 in Game 1. After dealing with the increased tempo by keeping their center of gravity low, Satwik turned defence into attack with one clever direction-change of the racket head, from his right hip, deflecting the shuttle to the deep forehand corner of the Indonesian side, for one of the shots of the match. From 14-13, the lead quickly swelled up to 19-15, and the Indians took the lead.
“I think whenever we play against the Indonesians, whoever it may be, we know for a fact that the rallies won’t be that long as compared to probably if we play a Japanese or a Korean pair. Because even they want to just keep the shuttle as low as possible, try to play in between, and catch the net. Yeah, we knew that the rallies would be short, and we sort of prepared for it. Credit to them, they came back quite well in the second, but happy to win this in three,” Chirag told BWF after the match.
After a couple of loose points early in Game 2, the Indians made it 3-3 after Satwik charged forward to take control at the net, something he has been doing more often in the recent past. But Ardianto-Hidayat moved up 6-3 after an error each from Satwik and Chirag, the latter hitting his forehead with the racket after netting the shuttle from a position of advantage. It was followed by an ordinary few minutes from the Indians, who found themselves 4-10 down after a series of mistakes. It needed a big booming smash from Satwik to end that mini streak, and they closed the gap down, but the Indonesians went into the break 11-7 ahead.
A terrific defensive save from Satwik in the deep forehand corner caused some confusion between the Indonesians’ positions and the Indians pounced with a smash each to close the gap down to 11-13. After a few intense exchanges, the Indians would go into the lead at 17-16 with a Plan A attack, Chirag setting up a loose lift for Satwik at the backcourt, and the latter put it away with venom. But once more, Chirag and Satwik put themselves under pressure with two flat drives pushed right into the net, almost identical unforced errors to trail 17-19. A sensational flat rally involving all four players was killed by a big smash from Ardianto, and the Indonesians had two game points. Satwik, usually not prone to consistent mistakes, hit another smash right into the net to concede the second game.
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A problem area in the recent past for Satwik-Chirag has been conceding big leads at the start of Game 3, not resetting quickly enough early on in the decider. There was little to choose in the early exchanges here, with scores tied at 4-4. In a match with barely any developed rallies, the Indians won a sensational 37-shot exchange for 6-4, first using their full reach in defence to keep the shuttle alive, then settling into a good flat exchange, before Chirag put away a loose shuttle at the net. It augured well for what’s to come.
At 8-5, it was once again the low crouched defence from the Indians that won them a superb point, with Chirag almost going off balance when he was put under pressure, but kept his shape and then changed direction brilliantly to convert another defensive position into an attacking winner. After the change of ends at 11-8, a sensational defensive block from Chirag gave the Indians a 14-10 lead, then Satwik went full Satwik to make it 15-10. The Indonesians did go toe-to-toe towards the backend of the match, but Satwik-Chirag had built up enough head of steam to close the match out.
Lakshya outplayed
File image of Indian singles shuttler Lakshya Sen. (Photo courtesy: BAI)
A 30-shot rally early on in the opener was won by Lakshya with a delightful crosscourt backhand winner at the net. But it was Lanier who opened up the early lead, going up 8-2 with a sharp forehand winner despite a couple of really sharp defensive retrievals from Lakshya. The Indian wasn’t actually playing all that poorly – as evidenced by the point for 5-10 when he played a thumping forehand smash winner after a patient rally – but Lanier was just doing everything a bit better than Lakshya, going into the interval 11-5 up. The rally at 12-6 would have been mentally damaging for Lakshya as he played the point so well on defense, reading Lanier’s attacks nice and early, but the Frenchman got the shuttle to dangle over the top of the tape and land on the right side. If that didn’t, then the point at 15-8 would certainly have as Lakshya’s head drooped after an incredible defensive retrieval mid-rally wasn’t enough when Lanier got the better of the net cord again.
At the start of Game 2, Lakshya missed the backline thrice in a row, sending the lifts beyond and struggling to find his lengths. As he threw his head back at 3-9 when another shuttle went long, it felt like the writing was on the wall for the Indian. Lakshya came out of the interval with an increased tempo but everything he threw at Lanier came back with interest and he quickly found himself 4-12 down. A brief flurry of points after the interval gave some hope of a miraculous comeback for Lakshya but the damage had already been done.
