DARE TO DREAM

Having rediscovered their mojo in the Indonesia Open, Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy are eyeing bigger victories

- NEERU BHATIA

Match point won and victory sealed, Chirag Shetty bent down, touched his head, pulled off his bandana, and threw himself into the arms of his doubles partner Satwiksairaj Rankireddy. Then, he made fists and let out a loud yell.

Weeks of frustration had finally come to an end with their victory in the Indonesia Open. The doubles pair had not just returned to winning ways after a string of early exits, but also won a Super 1000 event—one of the four biggies of the Badminton World Federation world tour. The victory also catapulted the duo to number 3 in the men’s doubles world ranking.

The triumph came after early exits in Sudirman Cup, Thailand Open and Singapore Open, where they had struggled to find their mojo. Indonesia helped them rediscover it. “We told ourselves: it can’t go any worse than this, now it can only improve,” Shetty told THE WEEK. “In sport, the greatest wins come after the greatest losses, and that is what happened there. The way we were playing before, and the way we played in Indonesia—that is one thing that makes Indonesia Open more special than other tournaments.”

Making the victory even more special was that they beat Malaysia’s world champion pair Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik, against whom the Indians had lost eight times earlier. Shetty and Rankireddy’s post-victory jubilation, passionate as it was, did not quite reflect the effort, determination and intent that had gone into clinching the title. The brainstorming sessions with doubles specialist coach Mathias Boe, chief coach Pullela Gopichand and the rest of the coaches had helped a great deal.