After CWG first, shuttler duo eyes world medal
Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy look back at Birmingham and ahead to Tokyo.
“It really feels good.” Even though he tried, Chirag Shetty couldn't hide the glee on his face when reminded that he and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy were the first Indian men’s doubles badminton pair to win gold at the Commonwealth Games (CWG). “We knew nobody else had won so it really sounds good. It couldn’t have got any better.”
The duo has been adding ‘firsts’ to its list of accomplishments with each passing season. The pair guided India to the first mixed team gold at the 2018 Commonwealth Games before the breakthrough win at the 2019 Thailand Open. The combine also became India’s first men's doubles pair ranked inside the world’s top-10 and achieved its biggest high by leading India to the first Thomas Cup crown earlier this year.
But the victory in Birmingham last week didn’t come easy, especially after losing the mixed team final where India went down 1-3 to Malaysia. “We were all disappointed. Treesa (Jolly) and (Kidambi) Srikanth were crying,” said the 25-year-old Shetty. World No. 7 Shetty and Rankireddy too lost to Tokyo Olympic bronze medallists Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik in the opening rubber which started India’s slide.
In the men’s doubles, the Malaysian pair was seeded No 1. Shetty and Rankireddy knew that to win gold, they would have to beat the world No. 6 combine. The Indian pair started training accordingly, watching footage of the loss and analysing what went wrong.
But the moment never came as England's Ben Lane and Sean Vendy defeated Chia and Yik in the semi-final. “Even if the Malaysians would have come (in the final) we would've come out all guns blazing because we really wanted to turn that silver into gold. But the English pair was playing really well and had beaten the Malaysians 21-4 in the third game (in the semis),” said Shetty.
“We knew we had stiff competition as Lane and Vendy were on a high and had the home crowd with them. We had to control nerves but I’m really happy we were able to come out on top. We really wanted to get that individual gold after the team silver. All of us wanted to go out there and win gold.”
The will of the badminton contingent was on full display on August 8. Lakshya Sen in men’s singles, PV Sindhu in women’s singles and Shetty/Rankireddy in men’s doubles claimed three gold medals: India best show in CWG history. “This is just a stepping stone. There are a lot of tournaments coming and we want to focus on that,” said Shetty.
The next destination for the pair is Tokyo where the World Championships start on Monday. Seeded seventh, Shetty and Rankireddy have been handed a first-round bye and will face the winners of the match between Guatemalans Solis Jonathan/Anibal Marrpquin and New Zealanders Jonathan Curtin/Dylan Soedjasa in Round 2.
“It is quite a good draw. We really want to go out there and take it one match at a time. If we are able to do that we can definitely go deep in the tournament. A medal is a definite possibility. The way we have been playing… if we can keep calm and are able to play to the best of our abilities, just keep it simple, we can definitely win a medal,” said Shetty.
Jwala Gutta/Ashwini Ponnappa is the only Indian pair to medal at the World Championships when they claimed a women’s doubles bronze in 2011.
In other news, former world champion Nozomi Okuhara of Japan pulled out the World Championships due to injury. Last week, PV Sindhu also withdrew due to a stress fracture suffered during CWG. The two played the finals of the World Championships in 2017 and 2019 with Okuhara winning the former while Sindhu triumphing the second time.
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