It took a stress-free, near non-chalant surge of points from 16-20 to 20-all in the second set, for Satwiksairaj Rankireddy to finally beam a wide grin, and recapture the joy of men’s doubles: the contest is meant to be frenzied and fun, a dopamine for duos with racquets, and sometimes points get won or lost on a lark of a racquet angle. Satwik and Chirag Shetty lost that set, 20-22 but won the match 21-14, 20-22, 21-16 against young pairing of Junaidi Arif and Roy King Yap to make Hong Kong Open semis.
It’s just how this last fortnight has been – on odd days, the Indians beat Malaysians with the redoubtable Aaron Chia in opponent ranks, and on even days, they again beat Malaysians without Chia. Though their most skilled opponent is always lurking on the horizon. On Friday at Kowloon for the Suoer 500 Hong Kong Open, Chia who lost at Hong Kong Coliseum early, sat on the coach’s chair alongside legendary Malaysian coach, Herry Iman Pierngadi.
India’s own Malaysian, coach Tan Kim Her, was around to calm the Indians down, and remind them that they have the heavy arsenal, but might not need to pull it all out, for next week’s China Open is the big one in September. But Arif and Yap are no mugs. Something of a cross between Minions, laced with attacking intent, and Chia himself who brings the brains to their offensive plays, the new Malaysians can be a handful. Chia was clearly at hand, to tell them how to harangue the Indians, because he’s historically been good at it, though this World Championship saw the Indians counter him clinically.
The tournament might be a Super 500, but it’s where most countries are testing and tweaking their newly launched pairs for the next Olympic cycle. Especially the Malaysians and Taiwanese, who promise to make life difficult for all top pairings. Yap-Arif are thus the leaping generation, and went about targeting the Indian vulnerabilities – body defense on shots coming at their ribs, the seeds of which are those nightmarish Chia racquet-angles.
Both Chirag and Satwik were alternately targeted, but always in a flurry. This would comprise of pushing them back with one shuttle to the back court, forcing out lifts from them and then repeatedly pinging their torsos with some intense smashing into the body. It’s not a bad plan, but to assume either Satwik or Chirag can be peppered, was optimistic. It’s so early-2024. Resultantly, while they copped the attack, their defenses held strong, the lifts weren’t smotherable, and they neatly shifted to their own attacking gears. Once there, the Malaysians were hapless witnesses to their own fading off.
Satwik-Chirag’s next opponents at Hong Kong Open 2025 are Taiwanese Chen-Lin. (BWF/BadmintonPhoto)
The holding off in the siege needed effort, but like many pairings have discovered this last one year, Satwik-Chirag are not one-dimensional attacking robots. The Malaysian plans came undone when they stopped hitting down the middle, and went for the flanks. Even the lines where the drift watched their shuttle careen off course. Even there it was because Satwik was ready to guard the periphery.
However, it was Chirag Shetty who is always the target of Malaysian offensives. They boxed him in with their attacks, but he used his agility to deflect the angles and repeatedly punished them, returning the cross attack, in kind, with interest. Roving the back court, he found the short smash tweaks to find gaps. A serve of his in the second when the Indians had a chance to close out was deemed an error as the Malaysian moved out of the way and let it fall. But he shrugged it off and ensured that the decider gave the opponents no respite, and not a sniff of the lead.
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The young Malaysian pairing left the court chuckling with the two coaches, at some of their plans coming apart. It’s probably the biggest takeaway from how Malaysians and Indonesians play – keep the fiendish fun of doubles alive, no matter what.
Satwik-Chirag’s next opponents are Taiwanese Chen-Lin. They are ranked 99, while the Indians are No 9. But upstarts abound, and it helps to know those two countries – Malaysia and Taiwan have the best doubles programs set in motion, for coming years.
