Happy return for SatChi, injury woes for Lakshya
CHENNAI: It was a mixed day for India in the ongoing Singapore Open tournament. The doubles duo of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty made a winning return while singles specialist Lakshya Sen was forced to retire mid-match due to lower back pain on Wednesday. Later, the women's doubles combination of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand also won their tie to advance to the second round.
From India's perspective, there was much interest on Satwik and Chirag at the BWF World Tour Super 750 event as they had been out of action for a little over two months due to injury. But it was Lakshya who entered the court first (Court 1) for his men's singles tie against Lin Chun-Yi of Chinese Taipei. Having pocketed the first game, Lakshya had made an ideal start. But he couldn't sustain the momentum and conceded the second game before injury troubles hit him. The score read 21-15, 17-21, 5-13 when Lakshya retired.
"Lakshya had to retire from his Singapore Open match due to lower back pain and spasm, which he had been experiencing since last Saturday during practice. Despite trying his best, he wasn't fully fit. The pain worsened during the match, and to prevent further injury, he pulled out of the third set. Our team will now focus on his recovery for upcoming tournaments," Lakshya's father and coach DK Sen told this daily in a statement.
Soon after that, it was Satwik and Chirag's turn to take the court. Returning to action for the first time since the All England Championship, the men's doubles duo eased past Malaysian duo of Choong Hon Jian and Muhammad Haikal 21-16, 21-13.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Time of India
a day ago
- Time of India
Singapore Open: Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty bow out in semis
Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty ended their Singapore Open campaign in the semi-final against Malaysia's Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik (Image via X/@babaighosh) Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty saved seven match points before crashing out in the semifinals of the Singapore Open BWF Super-750 tournament on Saturday. Despite a valiant effort towards the end of the third game, the Indians lost 21-19, 10- 21, 18-21 to Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik of Malaysia. This was the 10th victory for the Malaysians in 13 meetings. They also beat the Indians at the Paris Olympics last August. The Malaysians reached their third final in three weeks. They won the Thailand Open and lost the Malaysia Masters last week. Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SUBSCRIBE NOW! In the final on Sunday, the third seeds will face South Korean fifth seeds Kim Wan Ho and Seung Jae Seo. IPL 2025 Winner Prediction: What Greenstone Lobo's Astrology says Playing their third semifinal of the year, Satwik-Chirag were aggressive in the first game. The Indians led 11-8 at the break and increased the lead to 14-10. Employing a strategy that helped them win in Olympics, Aaron and Soh succeeded in keeping the shuttle flat and close to the net. This disturbed the rhythm of the Indian duo and the Malaysians levelled at 18-18. At this stage, Soh hit the shuttle long and smashed the next one into the net, giving two valuable points to the Indians as they won the first game. Poll What do you think about Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty's performance in the semifinals? They played exceptionally well They could have done better They were unlucky I didn't watch the match The Indians were a bit lax in the second game. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like 5 Books Warren Buffett Wants You to Read In 2025 Blinkist: Warren Buffett's Reading List Undo It was a close affair till 6-6 in the third game. At this stage, the Malaysians secured four straight points and went up 11-7. At 20-11 when it looked all was over, the Indians saved seven match points before Soh managed to secure a smash winner, to the relief of the Malaysians
Indian Express
a day ago
- Indian Express
Why badminton rankings don't matter but titles do
What was PV Sindhu ranked when she won silver at Rio Olympics? It somehow assumes irrelevance when you register that she beat Wang Yihan, Tai Tzu-ying and Nozomi Okuhara to make finals. That she never reached World No 1 while winning 2 Olympic medals and 5 World Championship medals including a World title, will remain confounding always. But it doesn't blot her legacy one bit. That, India's most recent World No 1s Kidambi Srikanth and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty are still searching for their first Olympic medal and second Worlds podium is as boggling. They of course reached World No 1 by winning several Tour titles, and will forever hold that citation of sitting atop the global charts. But as salves go, the top rank might not quite make up for a medal, a keepsake, a high point. Sure, something in the wind learnt their names, but they can't quite say things were never quite the same. This week, Satwik-Chirag beat the World No 1s while themselves being ranked No 27. For the memories imprinted – it's special because they have had a torrid six months past – their march into the Singapore semis will be remembered more starkly than how the rank dipped to 27. Yet, it's a sombre, sobering week – for the first time since 2009, no Indian will be in Top 10 and that low-key hurts the sport which is reeling under stagnation, with top names struggling to make breakthroughs at big events. Lakshya Sen and Satwik-Chirag are grappling with injuries and setbacks, it is unclear if Sindhu is up for the second fight with ageing impediments to movements though her issues seem to be more tactical. But the assurance of a Top 10 holding place for seedings has vamoozed. HS Prannoy and Srikanth are staring at tough draws too, not to mention qualifying grind having plummeted in rankings. Treesa-Gayatri- though with plenty of time on their side and no urgency really in the post-Olympic season – have the perennial pressure of keeping that Top 10 rank, and constantly proving themselves if titles don't fetch up. Women's tennis once faced a scalding phase where the World No 1s were without Grand Slam success, and the consistency in reaching top of rankings only brought them grief and ridicule with constantly being told they had won no Majors. Sindhu's 2019 title more or less made that high of World No 2 or missing the No 1 inconsequential. Men's doubles in badminton has had at least a dozen World No 1s in the last 5 years, and consistency is wretchedly elusive. No one can hold onto World No 1 because forms dip, and so Satwik-Chirag weren't unduly stressed by dropping out of Top 20. Badminton's relentless circuit means keeping high rankings for years on end needs a constant commitment to hit the high notes – which remains difficult given the punishing grind of back to back competition weeks. It is not uncommon for someone to win a title on Sunday and then exit on Wednesday or Thursday, and scarcely frowned upon even. Some like Viktor Axelsen just naturally prioritised the bulk of Super 1000s and Super 750s, though bunched up tournaments took a toll on their bodies. Even as recovery techniques have improved exponentially, it is highly unlikely anyone stays at the top for seasons together. An Se-young has extended phases of brilliance, but then needs chunks of breaks too. For what it's worth, Chen Yufei, Akane Yamaguchi, Carolina Marin and Tai Tzu-ying have spent a good number of weeks as World No 1, but weren't unduly stressed about slipping down when heading into any tournaments. However, it needs the sort of mindset and attitude of Satwik-Chirag or Sindhu or even HS Prannoy to convince yourself that draws and seedings don't matter if you are ready for 5-6 days of grind. Prannoy in fact proved rankings are no big deal when he brought down Axelsen at the World Championships in 2023 in quarterfinals. Some would say, Sindhu and Srikanth and even Lakshya Sen are better off playing the Top 3 early in a week, when the exhaustion hasn't compounded. Some of Sindhu's better matches – albeit losses – have come in early rounds, though she would easily trade her resilience of lasting 5 days and maintaining intensity till the end of 2017-2019 for the 'tough-luck defeats'. Opponent Ranking-agnostic all her early career, her inability to beat the big names hurts her now. India being completely out of Top 10 after 16 long years is concerning but the prevalent emotion will be rightfully upbeat with Srikanth making Malaysia finals, and Satwik-Chirag entering weekend warfare at Singapore – business end of tournaments. The truest value of rankings isn't quite where the Indians reach, but what rankings scalps they snare and how deep they get into tournaments. Those calculations figure themselves out, and are best left to AI models. The Indian who will get most tormented by trolls on rankings will be Lakshya Sen, with his batchmate Kunlavut Vitidsarn climbing to World No 1. These things can play on the athlete's minds, but there's just one Stat he ought to remember. The great Lin Dan was World No 1 for 194 weeks; Lee Chong Wei for 349 weeks. Both are modern greats, but everyone knows who was GOAT. Rankings are all very nice, but only titles matter. P.S: Sindhu was ranked World No 10 when she won silver at Rio.
The Hindu
a day ago
- The Hindu
It's a good sign, best is yet to come: Satwik-Chirag on semifinal finish 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 (May 31, 2025). 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 had 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 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."
