Kuala Lumpur: Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, fueled by a hunger for victory following their recent runner-up finish at the Malaysia Open Super 1000, are determined to claim their first silverware of the new season at the upcoming India Open. The duo faced a narrow defeat in the Malaysia Open men's doubles final to world No. 1 Chinese pair Liang Weikeng and Wang Chang, concluding a dream run with a 21-9 18-21 17-21 scoreline.
As the Asian Games gold medallists, Satwik and Chirag are positioned as top contenders for the India Open Super 750 crown set to kick off at the IG Stadium in New Delhi on Tuesday. Expressing their hunger for success, Satwik stated, "We want to do well in our home country next week, so we don't want to relax with this, we are more hungry, and next week also we want to do well in front of our home crowd."
Chirag emphasized the importance of focusing on the positives, stating, "We obviously could have played a lot better towards the end. I think what's important is to look at the positives also; we have played some good badminton here, but we are not done yet. India Open is coming up next week, and we want to go one better."
Despite squandering an opening game advantage and an 11-7 lead in the decider in the Malaysia Open final, the duo remains optimistic about their performance. Satwik and Chirag have faced Liang and Wang four times, securing their only victory during their title-winning run at the Korea Open Super 500 last year.
Looking ahead, Satwik expressed, "Till we retire, we will be playing against them for a long time. It is always a tough fight against them. We are happy with what we wanted to achieve; we are happy we could go deep into the tournament."
Reflecting on their recent performance, Satwik added, "I feel it is still not my 100 per cent, there is something inside me, I am not satisfied. In a few other tournaments, I felt I was 100 percent, but here we played finals, but still I felt like we played 60-70 per cent. So, if we can play our 100 per cent, then we would like to see what happens against them."
Satwik and Chirag, the most successful Indian players in the circuit last year, aim to build on their achievements, having won the Asian Games gold, titles in the Asian Championship, Indonesian Super 1000, Korea Super 500, and Swiss Open Super 300, along with reaching the finals of China Masters Super 750 in November last year.
—Input from Agencies