Indonesia Open: Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty use two-pronged attack to upset home favourite World No.1-pairing
The World No 1s Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Rian Ardianto were in poor form. Indian seventh seeds Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty made them look asmal, with their perfect rotations and a double-barrelled attack from the forecourt. Silencing the Indonesian home crowd at ora Senayan is not easy, it’s easily one of the loudest arenas in sport. But the Indians were so dominant against the top seeds that they managed the unbelievable feat of shushing the crowd briefly after a commanding 21-13, 21-13 win against the home contenders.
Chirag Shetty was especially in good nick, making the Indonesian top seeds nervous targetting Adrianto, who was particularly error-prone. He pranced around the forecourt with assured striding, and fell back occasionally even as Satwik manned the front. All that the Indonesians had was the parallel game, and the Indians outplayed and out-manouvred them in the flat exchanges. The Indians even took a couple of service errors in their stride.
The duo broke away at 6-6 and built themselves a 16-10 lead from which the home pairing saw no way back against the steep, bouncing attack they were peppered with. At 17-10, Satwik turned a defensive block into a cross winner with a little twitch of the racquet head. But mostly it was Chirag’s smash fest from behind, even as Satwik finished up front to take the opener 21-13.
Sat-Chi enter semis in style, beat WR-1 home-favourite duo in straight games 🤩🔥
Well done boys 💪
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— BAI Media (@BAI_Media) June 16, 2023
The second set mirrored the first, and despite the home crowd dinning up some solid support, the Indonesians had no retorts, and Adrianto was reduced to a bundle of nerves. The Indian pairing once more reached 16-10 with relentless smashing, and wrapped up the quarterfinal with identical scoreline of 21-13, 21-13.
The Indians play Korean Kang Min Hyuk and Seo Seung Jae in the semis.
Prannoy downs Kodai
HS Prannoy had half a dozen showcase crosscourt smash kills that stole all the attention, but it was the hard work in setting them up that deserved the plaudits as he beat Japanese third seed Kodai Naraoka 21-18, 21-16 in a contest that lasted 55 long minutes.
“The slow court conditions were in Kodai’s favour and he was a tough opponent. But the way Prannoy fought and stayed mentally focussed was commendable,” coach Gopichand said later.
Prannoy enters semifinals with a dominating win over WR-4 Kodai Naraoka 😎🔥
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— BAI Media (@BAI_Media) June 16, 2023
Naraoka doesn’t come armed with visible weaponry. But his defense is so strong that he can sap the energy of opponents and absorb their attack like a sponge. It is when Prannoy backed off from the all out attack and got rallying that he could set the stage for those gorgeous crunchy cross courts. It was the drops and 70-80 percent smashes that got him the openings for the good-looking cross winners. And that was a lot of hard work.
The match stayed tight till 17-all in the first set, with both players working up a run of points and catching up. As the rallies got longer and more punishing, Prannoy began to draw out Naraoka’s errors to go 20-17 ahead. He pocketed the opener with an attacking pounce of a backhand at the net. Yet, Naraoka had dropped the first set and still went on to win in the previous two matches. Prannoy had to keep pace and snap at his heels in the second.
The Indian, ranked No. 9 in the world, would stay in the rallies defensively, and work himself into positions from where he could smash crosscourt. The crosscourt smash was a standalone beauty — he connected high in the air, leaping and injecting pace into the stroke adding some shoulder to it. It helped him pull away a tad at 16-14. The space for the winning cross kill would be created tugging Naraoka forward to the net, and forcing a lift.
Like a whle piercing through a round of claps, at 18-16, he sent down a big straight smash to break the rhythm and inject confusion at just the right time. The next two rallies, with confusion swirling, would end in two crosscourt smashes catching him wrong footed as he reached 20-16. The win was his at 21-16 as Naraoka drifted wide. And Prannoy was in his third semis at Indonesia – due to face World No. 1 Viktor Axelsen.
He has unfinished business from 2017, when he took on giant killing duties clearing the title path for Kidambi Srikanth, but couldn’t progress to the final himself. Prannoy-2023 is a different beast though, with the confidence of also having beaten Axelsen.
On a disappointing day, Srikanth himself took the opener against Li Shifeng, but couldn’t sustain the momentum as he went down 14-21, 21-14, 21-12 as his errors piled up. The Indian had great pick-ups in defense and often impressed at the net, but like always his errors outnumbered his winners as the Chinese prevailed.
