Indonesia Open Badminton: India's Satwik-Chirag script history, beat world champions for men's doubles title

Asian men's doubles champions Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty on Sunday scripted history as they beat the reigning world champions Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik in the final to win India`s maiden BWF Super 1000 title at the Indonesia Open 2023 badminton tournament, in Jakarta. The Indian pair, sixth in men's doubles rankings, registered a 21-17, 21-18 win over their World No. 3 Malaysian opponents in 43 minutes to claim their first-ever Super 1000 title.

Satwiksairaj and Chirag were slow to get off the blocks in the first game but unleashed a flurry of attacking shots to win six consecutive points and take a 9-7 lead. The Indian pair then protected their slender lead and closed the game with two straight points.

Both teams took an aggressive approach in the second game and were level at 6-6.

However, Chirag and Satwiksairaj demonstrated quicker reflexes to stun their higher-ranked opponents and went into the break with a four-point lead.

Just like in the first game, the Indian pair never allowed Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik to mount a comeback and registered their first-ever win over the Malaysians in eight meetings

Chirag-Satwiksairaj and Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik had also met in the semifinals of the 2022 World Championships in Tokyo which the Indian pair lost in three games.

The win at Indonesia Open was the sixth title for Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy on the BWF World Tour.

Their last BWF title came at the Swiss Open Super 300 tournament in March. However, the Indian pair entered the Indonesia Open after suffering a first-round exit at the Singapore Open earlier this month.

The Indian badminton players will next be seen in action in the Taipei Open BWF Super 300 event, starting on Tuesday.

Beating world champs a high: Satwiksairaj 

Satwiksairaj told the media after their win, "More than winning the tournament, beating them is one of the highs. When we play (them) next time, we will play all-in again."

Chirag echoed his partner's sentiments and said, "More than winning the tournament, beating Aaron and Soo was what we truly wanted to do because we have come close in beating them but we have sort of held ourselves back a bit.

"But this time we reached up to the plan and it paid huge dividends. But as Satwik said, this is just the start, we have to win even bigger tournaments," he said.

While clarifying that the presence of Pullela Gopichand was not restricted to their final as he was there for the team, Satwiksairaj said him attending the game had a huge impact.

"(We are) very happy with this performance after a bad past two months. We had become lazy and passive with thoughts like 'it is under control', but it is not. The last two tournaments were wake-up calls for us, 'be alert otherwise we would be smashed in the first round only'," said Satwiksairaj.

"We practised really hard with the coaches, physios and trainers. I have an injury prone body but I would say (credit) the efforts (put) behind the team. Even Gopi sir came after a long time for our matches, I felt like he is a magician on the court. I feel so positive when he is there," he added.

For Chirag, the reason behind the Indian pair's triumph had more to do with them executing their plans well and playing the game the way they liked.

"Not really holding ourselves back while receiving. We have always served well against them and they have had a service and receiving is quite good," said Chirag when asked about what their plans were.

"We knew we had to be upfront and be a little slow on that. We knew that rallies would be short against them, we did not want to do that. If the shuttle was low, instead of playing in between, we were lifting and defending because we knew we have a strong defense as well now," Chirag added.

Satwiksairaj said it was important for the Indian pair to not keep their record against the Malaysian duo in their minds during the final.

"We are the winners here, but we again have a tournament next week, for which we go back and reset. But still, happy with the way we played and I felt like it was a new day. I really felt like you are playing a new opponent, it is not like I was looking at head-to-head, we were down 8-0 but I was not thinking much," he said.

"I thought it was the final, the pressure is the same on both the teams and whoever plays well will win. I thought we were playing well, we were in control when we got the strike in the first game, that 'it was our day, don't panic' just enjoy the final and see what happens," Satwiksairaj added.

Chirag said he was more pleased after the game because they recorded a convincing victory.

"I would not say it was the best match, but we played with a lot of conviction," he said.

"We stuck to the game plan, first few points we did not really score that well. In the earlier eight matches that we played against them, we sort of held ourselves back but we stuck to the plan and we knew they are humans, they are players, they will also make mistakes. We stuck to our plans and did not give them any chance to come back," Chirag expressed.

Satwiksairaj said the Indian pair had truly come a long way after focussing on just getting a chance to play at the Indonesian Open to become the first pair from the country to win a Super 1000 event.

"Winning in Indonesia is never easy, a lot of legends play here. It is one of our dream tournaments, from the start it was (about) at least getting an entry, and from there to winning this is a long journey," he said.