Belligerent Chirag dictates play as India’s top doubles pair inches closer to pinnacle | Badminton News

There’s a line in Avengers where Steve Rogers asks Loki: “What’s the matter, scared of a little lightning?” And the lord of mischief squirms: “I’m not overly fond of what follows.” Opponents of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty have been experiencing Loki’s discomfiting wriggle quite a bit this season.Satwik’s lightning hammer of a racquet Mjolnir may or may not hit the target on the court, but the follow-up to his attack is invariably Chirag’s power play from the front of the net, like coming face to face with a booming Thor. In fact, like in the pre-quarters against Leo Rolly Carnando and Daniel Marthin at the Copenhagen World Championships, beware of a rare Satwik make, for it almost always heralds a scything response from Chirag the immediate next point. The retort to conceding a point, be it an error from his own racquet or Satwik’s, is angry yet always accurate.More than half a dozen times during their 21-15, 19-21, 21-9 victory against 10th seeds Carnando-Marthin of Indonesia, a Satwik error into the net or sailing wide or long, was followed the very next point Chirag pouncing at quicker speed at the net for a lethal interception.

Chirag would turn back and apologise with a crinkled nose towards the coaches Mathias Boe and Pullela Gopichand and his partner Satwik if he made a make himself. But a setback of a conceded point always reinvigorated Chirag to be doubly attentive and incisive in the kill shot that followed. Such was his avenging fury from the forecourt that trailing 15-20 in the opener and terrified of his return of serve, Daniel Marthin would end up serving in the net, not knowing where to send the bird. But the ‘Satwik error – Chirag reaction winner’ tandem buried the resurgent Indonesians.
It comes from the Boe philosophy of attacking the serve and gaining ascendancy right away during a point in the first 3-4 strokes. Boe, tall and quick like Chirag is, would go after opponents at the net with power returns knowing he had the overhead short steep shots as well as a zippy pace to the cross drives that made them unreturnable when he played with Carsten Mogensen. Chirag was especially cutting after the Indonesians stole points from Indian errors.
It started in the second set when the Indonesians were threatening to close down the gap at 10-8, with Satwik hitting into the net. Chirag, sensing that they need to be kept at arm’s length, would jump on the serve the next point in a blitzing move to the left of the net and slash at it to go 11-8. The Indonesians targeted Satwik’s defence at an awkward length and drew out another net error at 11-13, and a midcourt miss at 11-14 as the momentum was swinging. Chirag would make amends right away.
At 13-16 came a Satwik service fault, and Chirag would pounce on Carnando’s following serve to make it 14-16. Chirag would mop up with relish at the attack on 16-17 when after 24 shots, Satwik’s smash got retrieved, but the Chirag follow-up would steeply hit the floor. At 18-19, Satwik would send a fine Carnando attack from the back, long. Next point, Chirag would whiz one past Carnando’s nose. It was a rare phase of Satwik’s errors that gave Indonesians a decider. In the third, Chirag’s retribution would be swifter in snappier points.
Earlier in the opener, Satwik’s attack had posed its usual sting, and the two Indians combined cross attacks on 7-5 to begin pulling away. Marthin is a commanding presence from midcourt, and Carnando’s deft hands at the net came into play in the second. But at 9-6 and 11-8 in the opener, there were no signs of a quaver from Satwik as he hit smashes hard down the middle.
Chirag’s round-the-head angled cross smashes from the front can be equally fearsome and at 12-10 when a Satwik hit got picked between the feet Carnando, Chirag would hammer the next stroke – again bisecting Marthin’s feet for a defining kill. The Indians increased the lead to 15-10 when Satwik defended well multiple times before a well-placed smash going past the nose. At 20-14 came the point of the match, when Chirag sent a terrific backhand cross from left end of the net to the right forecourt of the opponents, and the Indians would soon take the opener.
It was in the third that Chirag had had enough of the Indonesians resing submission. He would shuffle-plonk the left leg at the edge of the net, and smash from the front court with such ferocity into the ground guarding the lead zealously at 4-2. When Satwik’s return from the back was dumped into the net to make the score 4-4, the next Indian attack was on Carnando’s eyebrow. Apologies followed.
At 6-5, Chirag himself would err into the net. His reaction to a turnaround was swift, and the next point came an enraged net kill. The Indonesians picked the next point on Indian errors to narrow the gap to 6-7, but what followed was Chirag’s perfect deceptive cross smash played with a straight racquet head to go up 8-6. 12-6, Satwik’s nerves had settled and his smash was singing once more as Chirag had his back during the tiny midgame blip and the start of the decider.
Chirag had one more net kill of note at 15-8 and the Indians would eventually sit pretty on 11 match points. The finish was a perfect tango. Through the match, if Satwik couldn’t get them, Chirag did. At 20-9, Chirag sent a jump smash from behind which the Indonesians retrieved for a short lift. Standing there, looming large, was Satwik at the net now, and he slam-dunked the attack into the empty floor to reach the quarterfinals.
With the defeat of the World No. 1 Indonesians on Wednesday, the Indian pair stand a good chance of reaching the World No. 1 spot, should they make the final. With Chirag in belligerent form already, the remaining pairs might not overly like what follows – Satwik hitting the groove and unveiling his attack as the weekend approaches.
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Loh Kean Yew kept hitting hard and the pace really increased when the Singaporean came from 4-11 down in the decider to level at 14-14 on the back of a 6-point rally. But HS Prannoy kept his nerve to hold off the 2021 World Champion, winning a thriller 21-18, 15-21, 21-19 to make his third straight quarterfinal of the World Championships.
In tricky conditions where it wasn’t easy to get out of trouble against a seriously power-smacking opponent, Prannoy wound up at 19-17. But memories of the Australia final where he lost from 20-16 up might’ve crossed his mind. This time the Indian seasoned player had the sturdiness to close it out, without a tremble.
Earlier in the first, the Indian dictated the rallies but strangely stayed behind on points. He made the decisive move at 15-16 down with four points in a row grinding himself out of trouble to lead 21-18. The trick with Loh who is alarmingly quick is to wait out while his errors pile up, and while Prannoy fell back a tad too much in the second to win in straight sets, he saved his best kills for the end of the decider.
Lakshya Sen lost to Kunlavut Vitidsarn 14-21, 21-16, 13-21.