New Delhi: A large part of India’s recent encouraging results in badminton have been due to the consistency of men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty.
The World No. 3 pair played a pivotal role in India’s maiden Thomas Cup win in 2022, helping in overturning the notion that doubles was the team’s weak link.
Since then they have gone from strength to strength, with consistent performances on the BWF World Tour. They have won tournaments in the Super 100 and Super 1000 level.
They have topped it off a World Championships bronze, Asian Games gold, an Asian Championships title, that helped them becone the World No. 1 pair.
Seeded third for Paris 2024, the duo is regarded as one India’s most feasible medal prospects. They have got a kind draw too, in Group C with Indonesia’s reigning All England champions Fajar Alfian/Muhammad Rian Ardianto (World No.6), World No. 31 from Germany Mark Lamsfuss/Marvin Seidel and No. 46 France’s Ronan Labar/Lucas Corvee.
The top two pairs will advance to the quarter-finals where a draw of lots will be be held to determing the line-up for the knockouts stage.
“If we can come in at our 100% when we play like the way we do, we are very difficult to beat. If everyone hits their 100 percent, I feel we are the best in the world. That’s the advantage we have, of being us, that we can actually trust and have the confidence that we are the best pair,” their coach Mathias Boe, who has been instrumental in their rise, recently said, as quoted by HT.
“That doesn’t mean we are going to win, but knowing that we’ve the highest level, it’s a nice feeling to have. I feel Satwik and Chirag are, if not the strongest, then at least among the top 3 of the strongest pairs in the world.”
In Tokyo 2020, they couldn’t qualify for the knockout stage in Tokyo. But they would draw confidence from their French Open win, which was achieved at the same venue where their Paris 2024 games would be held.
Havign won two titles and four final appearances this year, they have been in decent form too to realistic hope of being on the podium.
Background
Born in Mumbai to a hotelier father Chandrashekhar and mother Sujata Shetty, Shetty initially trained at Uday Pawar Badminton Academy.
When he decided to pursue the sport in the hope of turning into a professional, the 27-year-old shifted to Gopichand Badminton Academy in Hyderabad.
Initially he was paired with Arjun MR but hit it off when he combined with Satwik despite their initial language barrier.
Chirag’s strong net play complements Satwik’s predominantly back-court game, with both improving on their weakness to make them a formdiable force.
The men’s doubles pair of Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy are one of India’s better medal prospects at Paris Olympics. Badminton Sports News: Latest Cricket News, Cricket Live Score, Sports Breaking News from Sports Today
