CHENNAI: India’s powerhouse badminton pairing of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty are ‘probably the best men’s pair currently in the world’ in the eyes of Mathias Boe, their Danish coach. While they are No. 3 in the world, there is a strong case for agreeing with Boe, the 2012 Olympic medallist who has been coaching Sat-Chi for the last couple of years (he wasn’t courtside for the Korea Open).
Easy wins. Hard wins. Come-from-behind wins. Problem-solving on the fly to win. Going out of their comfort zone to win. In the last eight months or so, they have become apex predators. Boe agrees. In fact, he is of the opinion that the turnaround in Sunday’s final happened not in the beginning of the second game but during those last few points of the first that the Indian pair eventually ended up losing.
“They were off to a bad start, rusty maybe,” he told this daily. “But if they are not a 100% focused, not 100% fast, it’s difficult because the Indonesians are too good. They got started at the end of the first half and that’s what made them come out with a little bit of a blast from the second game. “It kind of showed the Indonesians, that yeah, they are ready now and they have more to offer. That’s how good teams work.”
Boe touched upon the problem-solving skills of his ward and how they prepare in training. “We have a style that we want to play but our opponents also know that. So we need to be able to play different ways and also improve in the things that we are not so good at. When our opponents are poking and pushing, we are able to recover and keep playing at a high level so we can still keep winning points.”
The World No. 1 pairing of Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Ardianto had a lot of success when they poked and pushed the Indians. But in the second and third stanza, their fire was put out. “There’s a lot of different aspects that we practice on and there are a lot of aspects where they have improved a lot.” While you can draw a straight line from them improving and it yielding a run of four titles this year (and not losing a final for nearly three years), Boe is humble enough to admit that they probably were lucky not to have lost a final or two on the way.
“I’m actually not even counting (laughs),” he said. “If you say, it’s probably right. Maybe also a little bit lucky. The Asia Championships, we shouldn’t have won. It’s sometimes about momentum. Overall, they are pretty relaxed when they walk onto court. They enjoy themselves and are good at keeping pressure to one side. Of course, it’s a good record to have.” In a day or two, they continue their trophy collection quest at Japan. In this form, you would have to be a brave person to bet against them.
