Satwik-Chirag: We are hungrier, want to go one better at India Open

Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty are “more hungry” after a runner-up finish at the Malaysia Open and would look to go one better at next week’s India Open.

Indian badminton players Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy in action. | Photo Credit: PTI

Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty are “more hungry” after a runner-up finish at the Malaysia Open Super 1000 and would look to go one better at next week’s India Open as they aim to claim their first silverware of the new season.

The Indian pair’s dream run at the Malaysia Open ended with a narrow 21-9 18-21 17-21 loss in the men’s doubles final to world No. 1 Chinese Liang Wei keng and Wang Chang here on Sunday.

The Asian Games gold medallists will be one of the top contenders for the India Open Super 750 crown beginning on Tuesday at the IG Stadium in New Delhi.

“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 our home crowd,” Satwik said after finishing second best at the first event of the year.

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Chirag added: “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.” Satwik and Chirag, the Asian Games gold medallists, squandered an opening game advantage and an 11-7 lead in the decider to lose the summit clash.

It was a fourth defeat for the Indian pair against Liang, 23, and 22-year-old Wang, having lost three of their last four meetings -- all in 2023. The only time Satwik and Chirag had emerged victories was during their title-winning run at Korea Open Super 500 last year.

“Till we retire we will be playing against them for a long time. It is always tough fight against them. We are happy with what we wanted to achieve, we are happy we could go deep into the tournament,” Satwik said.

“I feel it is still not my 100 per cent, there is something inside me, I am not satisfied.

“In 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 have been the most successful Indian players in the circuit last year, having won the Asian Games gold, titles in Asian Championship, Indonesian Super 1000, Korea Super 500 and Swiss Open Super 300.

They also reached the finals of China Masters Super 750 in November last year.