Satwig-Chirag duo feels the best is yet to come after semifinal exit at Singapore Open
Indian men's doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty were pleased with the way they challenged their higher-ranked opponents despite not being at their physical best, marking a promising comeback at the Singapore Open Super 750 badminton tournament here on Saturday.
The Asian Games champions signed off with a semifinal finish, losing to Malaysia's world No. 3 duo Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik 21-19, 10-21, 18-21.
'To come this far with the number of days we've trained and the weeks, months we've had both professionally and personally, to get back here and play a semifinal, we never really expected,' Chirag said after the loss.
'So, I think plenty of positives. You always want to go deeper and win the title, but when I look back at what we faced over the past couple of months, to come back and play a semifinal is a really good start. We'll go to Indonesia now.'
Satwik and Chirag struggled to compete consistently after the Olympics due to multiple setbacks.
After a semifinal finish at the China Open last year, they reached the last four at the Malaysia and India Opens before being hit again by health and personal challenges.
Satwik suffered a major personal loss earlier this year when his father died due to cardiac arrest in February.
He was also sidelined due to illness, missing the Sudirman Cup. Upon their return, Chirag's back injury flared up during the All England Championships, cutting short their campaign in March.
The time away from court impacted their ranking, as they slipped from world No. 1 to 27.
'Obviously that was the plan (to regain ranking). We didn't like that number 27, I think. We heard about that. But it's because of the break we had, unfortunate things and little injuries here and there after the Olympics.
'We didn't play many tournaments, but if you look back, whatever we played, we reached semifinals — which is a good sign,' said Satwik.
'One of the positive things is we are not at our best yet. Still, we are able to beat some top players and trouble the top-level pairs. That gives us a lot of confidence, and I feel the best is yet to come.' Chirag, who aggravated his back injury during the All England Championships, had to undergo a tough rehab process.
Satwik acknowledged the effort put in by his partner.
'But yeah, really hats off to Chirag. He has been through a lot over the past few months. Last month wasn't easy — I saw him working day and night, morning, evening, afternoon. So really hats off,' Satwik said.
'I know he's in pain now also, but he's still not telling me. That's how we lift each other, and we want to do well in the upcoming tournaments.'
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