Satwik gets another pay hike

Satwik says that this ‘simple’ attitude of his parents helps him to stay grounded. Despite the several highs on the international circuit, a trip to home gives him a much-needed reality check.

The World No 13 doubles player has had a very eventful year on the circuit with partner Chirag Shetty. He along with Chirag Shetty went on to become the first Indian pairing from the country to win a Super 500 title by bagging the Thailand Open. Then followed a Super 750 final appearance at the French Open, and most recently, a semifinal outing at the China Open where they went down fighting to the World No1 Indonesian pairing of Marcus Fernaldi Gideon and Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo.

“We also had a new coach coming in this year (Flandy Limpele) and then I had a shoulder injury to deal with. But everything fell in place and we did well in Paris and Thailand. The off-court training was tweaked by the new coach and it helped in the recovery and overall fitness,” he explained.

At last season’s auction, Satwik was roped in by Ahmedabad Smash Masters (pulled out this year), for 52 lakhs — two lakhs more than Olympic silver medallist Mathias Boe and a good 10 lakh more than former Olympic champion Hendra Setiawan. And after realising he’s got a good increment this year he sent a cheeky message to one of his promoters saying, “Each year more money.”

But for Satwik and his parents’ money has never been the driving force. After last season’s auction, the youngster expressed a deep desire to own a superbike or a fancy car but ended up purchasing a gearless scooter. “I don’t keep a single rupee with me. I will transfer all the money to my father’s account and he will take care of it. We got our house renovated and also cleared my brother’s education loan. With the money I’ve got now, we are planning to buy a house in Hyderabad. As far as the bike is concerned, I think I will have to wait for another three to four years,” Satwik said.

‘Aggressive and stylish’

Chennai owner, Sivakumar, said they are looking for a long-term association with the youngster and feels an “aggressive and stylish” player like Satwik was a perfect fit.

Satwik, by his own admission, was surprised by his top billing but was equally shocked that his‘didi’ (elder sister) and one of India’s most accomplished doubles players, Ashwini Ponnappa, went unsold despite a relatively low base price of Rs 15lakh. Awadhe Warriors too didn’t retain the services of the World Championship bronze-medallist.

“We were already on a budget and were going for Christinna Pedersen an Olympic silver medalist. We were expecting Ashwini to go for a bigger price and hence we refrained. We already spent Rs 29 lakh on Zhang Beiwen and the auction dynamics did not leave us with many options. But it’s sad no one else went for such a brilliant team player,” a member of the Warriors team management said.

Satwik said he would be extremely upset to not see his Commonwealth Games mixed doubles partner Ashwini at the event slated to start off on January 20th. “Even my mother was really upset. She’s such a simple person that she asked me if there was any way to share my money with didi and take her in the team. I am really disappointed,” Satwik said.

Meanwhile, the most expensive non-retained player overall, not surprisingly, turned out to be World No 1 Tai Tzu Ying who was signed up by Bengaluru Raptors for Rs 77 lakh. Star shuttler PV Sindhu was retained for Rs 77 by Hyderabad Hunters side who chose to go after Sikki Reddy instead of Ashwini. Seasoned singles player Paruapalli Kashyap (Mumbai Rockets for Rs 43 lakh) and prodigious teenager Lakshay Sen ( Chennai Superstarz for Rs 36 lakh) too ended with lucrative deals. Top Indian stars like Saina Nehwal and Kidambi have pulled out of this season’s league to focus on international tournaments.