It’s not often that Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty lose a match they have taken control of. A familiar pattern to their defeats is usually of them falling behind in a game and trying to catch up in the face of scoreboard pressure. They are good frontrunners.
That, ultimately, might be the most frustrating aspect of their quarterfinal defeat against Choong Hon Jian and Muhammad Haikal of Malaysia – 14-21, 21-13, 20-22, at Macau Open Super 300 on Friday. That it occurred exactly a year after their Paris 2024 quarter-final defeat against another Malaysian pair – Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik, their nemeses – after leading by a game, would just be an unwanted reminder of a heartbreak.
But there was good news in men’s singles, a discipline where there have been some serious concerns post-Olympics. For the first time since his version of the Paris heartbreak last year, Lakshya Sen has reached the semifinals of a BWF World Tour event outside India. And for the first time in more than a year too, outside a home event, two Indian men have reached the last four on the tour as Tharun Mannepalli continued his fine run in Macau, beating one of the bright young stars of world badminton.
Both Lakshya and Tharun defeated Chinese players, with the former overcoming Zhu Xuan Chen 21-14, 18-21, 21-14, while the latter downed reigning World Junior Champion Hu Zhe An 21-12, 13-21, 21-18.
Satwik-Chirag had reached the quarterfinals by surviving a big scare against a Japanese pair ranked World No.89, saving a match point in Game 2 on Thursday. The venue for the Macau Open clearly has one favourable side to play from, so players/pairs have seen their fortunes fluctuate over three games quite a bit, but even considering that, the Indians looked off rhythm in the early stages of their match against a pair they would have expected to dominate.
It was somewhat similar against Choong-Haikal too on Friday as the Indians barely had momentum in Game 1. If the stat for average length of a point was available, it would not have crossed four shots in the opening game as the match was being played out in service-return situations and the Indians couldn’t get that right.
But the second game saw SatChi hit their stride and pocket it largely comfortably, which should have meant that an 11-7 lead in Game 3 during the final change of ends should have seen them close the match out comfortably. Especially so, when a nervy service fault from Choong gave the former world No.1s an 18-14 lead.
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Sting in the tail
But the Malaysians switched up the tempo, and SatChi played a few passive points at this critical juncture that saw them lose five straight points. Haikal, especially, played like a pocket rocket to push his team ahead.
SatChi had a match point at 20-19 after one of the best rallies of the match, but Choong-Haikal put together another mini-run of three points, and let out a loud roar, on their knees, to celebrate a big win.
In Choong-Haikal’s win, ironically, was an interesting parallel to the Indians’ recent struggles.
“Every time I finish a tournament, I’m always grateful,” Haikal, who had a long spell on the sidelines due to a serious hip injury, was quoted as saying by New Straits Times earlier this year. “Why? Even if I lost and (am) sad about it, the important thing is I’m not injured. I’m really scared of getting injured again. To be honest, losing is better than being injured for a long period.”
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Much like SatChi’s sentiments towards each other when one of them is facing an injury, Haikal had thanked his partner for waiting for him to recover.
Satwik-Chirag, of course, would have dearly loved to end their wait for a title in 2025 in Macau. That was more than likely the main intention in playing a Super 300 event after two big events – Japan Open and China Open. As it stands, that winning feeling is still missing at the start of the World Championships month.
Earlier in the day, Lakshya vs Zhu was a clash that seemed to enthrall the crowd at Macao East Asian Games Dome. Towards the end of Game 2, Zhu was celebrating his winners like each of those won him the match. In Game 3, and during the entire match, Lakshya too produced audible gasps for his signature defensive hustle. At the end of the contest, the first thing Lakshya did was to acknowledge the fans in the arena.
He will face Indonesia’s young hope Alwi Farhan next while Tharun takes on Malaysia’s Justin Hoh.
