In good form: India’s Satwiksairaj Rankireddy (right) and Chirag Shetty believe their aggressive style of play will give them an advantage over other pairs. — AFP
PETALING JAYA: The only way is up.
Buoyed by their stunning results last year, India’s men’s doubles pair Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty are looking for even better performance in 2023.
Satwiksairaj-Chirag had played a pivotal role in their country’s Thomas Cup triumph last May and followed it up by winning gold in the Birmingham Commonwealth Games.
They had also become the first Indian men’s doubles pair to win a medal in the World Championships when they took bronze in Tokyo.
In World Tour events, Satwiksairaj-Chirag captured two titles – the Indian Open and French Open.
Despite missing several tournaments due to injury, the duo’s good form propelled them to a career-high no. 5 in the word rankings.
Now, the Indians are out to keep the momentum and break into the top three by the end of 2023.
“Our target is to get into the top three by December.
“Therefore we want to play more consistently and perform well in every tournament,” Satwiksairaj told Indian news outlet, Khel Now.
And they are raring to go in their first tournament – the Malaysian Open from Jan 10-15 at the Axiata Arena.
Satwiksairaj-Chirag will be one of the pairs to watch as they could pose a threat to home duo and reigning world champions Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik.
A quarter-final clash between both pairs is on the cards after they were drawn in the bottom half of the draw.
The Indians have never beaten Aaron-Wooi Yik in their previous seven attempts and will like nothing better than to finally end their winless run and silence the passionate home crowd.
Before that, Satwiksairaj-Chirag need to get past their opponents in the first round – South Korea’s Choi Sol-gyu-Kim Won-ho (No. 10) and possibly Indonesia’s Shohibul Fikri-Bagas Maulana (No. 12) in the second round.
Satwiksairaj-Chirag believe that their aggressive style of play could give them an advantage over the other pairs.
“I think probably out of all the pairs in the top 10, by far we have the best attack.
“Our game style is to get our opponents to lift the shuttle as much as possible so that we can attack more.
“That is how we fight and that is how we score most of our points and that is one thing that separates us from the rest of the players,” said Chirag.
