‘We gave it our all, eyes on Asian Games’: Satwik-Chirag on BWF Worlds’ loss

New Delhi, Aug 21 (IANS) Indian star doubles shuttlers Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty on Friday lost out in the quarterfinal of the ongoing BWF World Championships to Chinese pair Liang Wei Keng and Wang Chang, which dashed their hopes of a medal on home soil. The shuttlers, who have won two bronze medals at the BWF Worlds, went down to the Chinese duo 18-21, 9-21 in a 36-minute rubber at the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium.

Satwik and Chirag reflected on their performance, stating that they gave it their all despite the circumstances and now put their focus on the upcoming Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya next month. “I think in the first game, we had a good lead, probably 3-4 points ahead. But we knew it’s never easy playing against them. They play a very solid high-pressure game, and the shuttle travels extremely fast,” Chirag told reporters after their loss in the quarterfinal.

“We knew it would come (fast strokes), but I think we lost a couple of points here and there and eventually it became back and forth, and we lost the first game,” he said.

Satwik has been dealing with a shoulder injury for the last few years. While the duo won the Singapore Open Super 750, the issue forced the duo to retire mid-match at the Indonesia Open and Japan Open. Chirag stressed that while it hurts not to win a medal at the home World Championship, the duo gave it their all despite Satwik dealing with a shoulder issue.

“Obviously it would hurt. We are playing a World Championship on our home soil. To see such a huge crowd turn up and cheer for us obviously feels sad, but in the circumstances that we came in, I think we gave it our all and yeah feels bad but I think to be playing a World Championship at home feels special,” he further said.

On being asked how his shoulder feels, Satwik said it was “fine” for the game and is a “little mental” thing for him. “It was fine for today’s match. Yesterday it was a little bit more intense. “I could recover it pretty much well, so it wasn’t bothering much but it’s just a little mental thing for me to open up and play fully because it’s been while I played a match so I was getting better and better I was getting confident but there was no pain there’s just a stiffness so it’s just normal yeah definitely,” Satwik said.

The duo now look forward to the Asian Games. “The Asian Games is a big event. We want to go back to train, and look at the loopholes that we have and correct them, get better as we look forward to the Asian Games,” Chirag concluded.

–IANS

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