It has been a weird year for Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty so far.
The Indian shuttlers, currently ranked fifth in the world, won a major title after two years but also crashed out in the opening round in other tournaments. Injury woes forced them to pull out of a few but there were a couple of close encounters as well.
Not surprisingly, the duo prefers to keep their sights firmly on the immediate, focussing on one day, one match, one opponent at a time as they prepare to improve on their two World championship bronze medals. A third here, and of a different colour, would not only reaffirm their status in the pantheon of Indian badminton stars but also provide the momentum ahead of their title defence at the Asian Games. Excerpts:
How’s the preparation for the World Championships been, how’s the body holding up?
Satwiksairaj: All good, excited for the tournament. Looking forward for it. We haven’t played any big tournament in India so we are just excited, looking forward to when will it start, when will we be back on court. And the body’s getting ready to go all in again, so far all good.
Chirag: Body’s been holding up quite good and really looking forward to the Worlds. We had some injury concerns but now we are fit to go and we hope to go all out in three days. We’ve come a couple of days early to get used to the environment.
The last time you were here was the India Open and that wasn’t really a very good outing. Since then, a lot has happened. How would you describe the last six months?
Satwiksairaj: Not a good year so far. Yeah, not good. We didn’t start well, at the Malaysia Open, then India Open. Then All England Championships also we didn’t play that good. India Open, we played three games but weren’t at our best. Again, in the Swiss Open, I think we played one good match against the Japanese pair. Then I felt something in my shoulder and we couldn’t play the next tournament. Again, suddenly good break, rehab.
Then we played Thomas Cup. Thomas Cup was good, got bronze. Then we played Thailand Open, reached the final, followed by Singapore Open. Bronze, silver, gold, it was a good one-and-a-half – two months (May to June). After that, I again felt something in my shoulder, then back to the rehab, focusing on World championships and Asian Games.
So yeah, it’s been a mixed bag. But I wasn’t really satisfied so far because the kind of game we want to play, we are not up to the mark there. See, losing and winning is fine. We don’t mind losing, that is okay. But giving your 100 percent and losing after you give everything, that didn’t happen in the first three tournaments. We felt somewhere we weren’t playing up to the mark. And we didn’t have enough time to train as well in the last three or four months.
Chirag: Yeah, a couple of early exits, quarterfinals in Malaysia, second round at India Open, first round at the All England, it wasn’t the best start to the year. But Thomas Cup is when I think things changed for us. Post that, I think it was quite good. But then we had to pull out of a couple of tournaments. So it’s been a topsy-turvy season. But I think now we are fit and ready and really looking forward to our home World championships.
You are coming in without having played for a while because of Satwik’s shoulder injury. How much does not having a competitive outing affect your preparations?
Satwiksairaj: Yeah, it’s completely different in training and competition and obviously, it is a lot of mental thing as well. First thing that comes to my mind is, ‘how will your body react to the tournament.’ You have to play more than 100 percent, you don’t get fixed corners, you have to keep playing all over the court all the time. That will be the biggest concern.
Then again, the World championships are happening in India and I want to play well. I feel we have prepared for that. We had a talk earlier that we might face this situation, so let’s be prepared mentally. We will just take it one match at a time and not think too much. We don’t know what the intensity will be, we’ll just go and see. All we need is one good match on court, then we’ll forget everything, get the momentum.
Chirag: Actually not much, I wouldn’t say it greatly affects performance. Obviously, you would want to have match practice. But I think the most important thing is to be injury-free while playing a tournament, that’s first and foremost. You don’t want to have a competitive outing leading up to the World championships and then having an injury throughout the Worlds. I would rather prefer having zero injury issues at the Worlds than have enough match practice and play with 70-80 percent fitness. That’s how I feel. At that moment, it was more important for us to be injury-free than having practice.
You have struggled with injuries for a long time, Satwik’s shoulder, Chirag’s lower back, and it’s recurring. Every injury takes away at least a couple of weeks from the circuit and training, sometimes more. Does it become difficult to keep returning after breaks?
Satwiksairaj: Physically yes but not mentally. How you handle yourself is very important, especially in major tournaments, you need to be fit enough to play. We are not that old yet! As you grow, you have been there before, it’s the same situation all over again and you know how to handle it. And we have a lot of tournaments to adjust on the BWF circuit. It’s the same injury, which is actually good. From a player’s point of view, mentally it’s a bigger problem if something new keeps popping up every time. So far, all the parts are doing well except the shoulder.
Also, our game is like that, it’s not like I’m hitting 300-350 kmph. Whenever I am fit, it’s more like 450-500, so I have to use my shoulder all the time. We both are tall guys with heavy bodies. But we have experts now, we have been consulting doctors, we have been doing a lot of changes in the rehab and stuff. Hopefully it should work.
Chirag: Definitely. As you grow older, the recovery process slows down a bit. I think you have to respect your body and do everything possible to get back in shape. For an athlete, to take a break is not easy because you’re spending so much time on court and doing fitness or gym off it that when you are suddenly forced to take a break, it does hamper you mentally as well.
I wouldn’t say it doesn’t affect you but I think it’s a part and parcel of sport. If you are in this profession, you have to deal with injuries and get back stronger. The initial few weeks are tough but once you get back stronger, it makes you feel even better. Work hard in the bad days and look forward to the good days.
Does it get frustrating, the constant breaks?
Satwiksairaj: Yes, it does. Four years back, if you had asked how it affected mentally, it would have been more of a challenge, wondering what was happening to me all the time. But now we have accepted that two months every year will go in injury only, that’s how it will be.
But we don’t mind winning tournaments also in between, when you keep winning, it’s fine. This year that happened after two years, we won the Singapore Open, which is why we are in a comfortable place rather than pressing the panic button, thinking nothing was going good. We know when we’re fit enough, we can win tournaments.
Chirag: Yes. If I talk about my injury last year, in the first few weeks, I couldn’t even sleep properly because I have a habit of moving while sleeping. But because of the back issue, I could barely move. Initially, I was told it should get better in a couple of weeks, the pain should reduce but it didn’t for more than month, even though I did everything possible. Sometimes even if you put in the effort, it does not really reflect in the results. As athletes, what’s really in your hand is to keep doing the right things and hope that it works out.
Was the Singapore Open a relief, a title coming after two years?
Satwiksairaj: I will tell you a secret. Even during the Singapore Open, we weren’t fit enough because the week before, we played the final in Thailand. Our conversation before the tournament with the coach was that a quarterfinal showing was the maximum because of the fitness levels and the body we had, playing back-to-back. We weren’t 100%. I remember many tournaments we have won with injured bodies only.
Chirag: Definitely, it had been a while since we’d won a tournament. And it did give us a lot of relief. It gave us a huge boost mentally and confidence-wise. It was a very important triumph because we beat the Koreans in the semifinals and they were the pair to beat at that point. And we understood that whatever we’ve been doing is actually working. So, it was a step in the right direction.
You already have two World Championships bronze medals. What is the target this time?
Satwiksairaj & Chirag: Nothing on the mind. We haven’t spoke anything about that. We just want to be there till the end, go as far as possible. It’s challenging and we love challenges. Doing it in front of the home crowd would be one of the biggest moments in our lives so far. But we aren’t thinking so much ahead, we don’t want to jinx it or put pressure on ourselves. Just one match at a time, depending on how our body is reacting.
Realistically, we are among the best pairs in the world. And every single pair participating would want to go all the way. But we will take it one match at a time, because it’s not easy. Obviously, we would want to go all the way.
And Asian Games. Any thoughts on that yet, as defending champion?
Satwiksairaj: It’s so good to hear that we have to defend a title! I mean, whenever anyone introduces us, they’ll say the name but nobody says Asian Games gold medallists. It’s never easy to win in Asiad, especially in the doubles in badminton, it’s as difficult as the Olympics competition-wise. But before that we have the team event as well and the China Open. Right now it’s only Delhi and World championships.
Chirag: We wouldn’t go there and do the same thing as three years back. But it would be difficult. Last time also when we went there, we had the World championships before the Asian Games and we went out in the quarterfinals. I think we put a lot of pressure on ourselves back then to win it. At the Asiad, we didn’t put too much pressure on ourselves… this time, too, I wouldn’t want to keep any expectations.
