I thought the same thing. even kevin, who in my opinion is the master of that squat defense didn't do it that often.
A good read on Satwik Rankireddy/ Chirag Shetty. Note: several cuts to meet the 10000 character limit. Link: https://indianexpress.com/article/s...ton-thailand-open-mens-doubles-title-5895415/ Glorious chapter in Indian badminton: When Saatwiksairaj Rankireddy met Chirag Shetty… Shivani Naik |Updated: August 11, 2019 11:09:24 am Both Saatwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty love playing in Europe and want to win a title in Paris. Everyone says Saatwik bahot khaata hai (eats too much). But I love chicken biryani!” Saatwik grumbles on his return, adding, “I always argue with everybody that I play two events (doubles and mixed), so obviously, I need all that rice.” When he’s not thulping prawn biryani and mom’s aaloo fry (“I really like aaloo”) home at Amalapuram in East Godavari district, India’s giant-killing giant in doubles, makes it a point to find the best chicken curry-rice serving joint wherever he’s playing and chomps into the same food every night of the week. “We usually play at the same stadiums in each city year after year. So now I’ve figured it out,” he chirps. “I play well if I get good food,” he declares. For his two outings at the French Open where the Indian pair created stirs in consecutive years without quite getting onto the podium, Saatwik had located a shawarma place in Paris close to the stadium. “Fresh chicken and vegetable shawarma,” he recalls droolingly. Another time when the team had put up at rented apartments, Saatwik and fellow players Kidambi Srikanth and Sumeeth Reddy along with team’s chief physio Kiran cooked on all days prolifically. “Aaloo fry and chicken! There’s a big supermarket close by where you get Indian spices also. Kiran knows recipes, and we’d call up our mothers for instructions. We all cook well now, chopping, marinating – it’s all easy now,” he laughs. Early in their partnership, Chirag Shetty worried for his playing partner and found his stubbornness about food plain irritating. “Saatwik’s a lot better now,” starts the Mumbai shuttler, “but earlier he just wouldn’t try anything except Indian food. Like, he’d starve to death but not eat something new.” Chirag, whose family are the hotelier Shettys and who grew up in the cosmopolitan western suburbs of Mumbai, had made the transition from the Mangalorean red-chilli staple chicken kori roti to the more vinegary Japanese Katsu (chicken) curry rice, easily. There was also the obsessive Sushi for breakfast-lunch-dinner phase for Chirag (more on that later) when playing in Australia. But all in all, while heading into Tokyo Olympics, there is peace and gluttonous contentment at the table as long as there’s one or the other version of rice and chicken curry. It might take a few losses and some self-awareness of fitness for the fried potatoes and every other unhealthy morsel to be nudged out of the plate. But after several trials and many more errors, Saatwik and Chirag have rustled up a recipe to make their partnership work. India’s men’s doubles has never really taken the leap on the circuit internationally, but the duo lined up enough performances against top pairings. When India’s former doubles coach – Malaysian Tan Kim Her split the two from their respective partners and paired them, the two had bristled endlessly. Conventional badminton wisdom didn’t apply here – both played from the back of the court instinctively and the net was left unmanned leaving a massive bottomless valley of misery upfront. “We were both individually strong players, but playing half-court games. It wasn’t clicking because both of us tried being in the back. None of us knew what to do at the net,” says Chirag, of the early days in 2014. The Malaysian coach rightly believed both had the desired attacking attitude needed in doubles (both were tall too – Saatwik, 5’11, and Chirag, 6’1”). They’d win their first-ever seniors tournament domestically in Kochi, but lost first rounds in Poland, France, and Vietnam, realising that nothing was clicking. “After Vietnam, coach Tan took us out of the stadium and said, it’s ok if it’s not working out, we were free to split. Something happened after that talk, and we just started gelling well after that,” Chirag recalls. Trouble was they weren’t even properly communicating. “See, I was a pucca Telugu guy and I had only 50 per cent properwala Hindi,” says Saatwik. “My communication skills were bad so he found me shy. He’s very funny I know now – but we weren’t talking only.” It’s when the coach lumped them in one room and on one dinner table, at tournaments abroad that they’d make headway. “Mainly in the start, he spoke very little of Hindi and preferred hanging out with the Telugu gang. But he was essentially very nice and helpful, so I really liked him as a person. Then we developed a friendship even though we were losing internationally,” Chirag says. A flutter happened at the Syed Modi three seasons later in Lucknow when the Indians, ranked in the 50s, took World No 2 Boe-Mogensen to three sets. India’s men’s doubles has never really taken the leap on the circuit internationally, but the duo lined up enough performances against top pairings as Chirag literally put his head down and picked up the net gauntlet, cut short the long racquet swing to learn snappy angles and subtlety with the stem, and even gave up on the dream of playing the backhand like his favourite Taufik Hidayat – since shuttles are hardly taken across the body and all taken overhead in doubles. Saatwik’s reputation for the big smash would only get enhanced in the meantime, though both were learning to rotate – as is expected at the highest level, with Saatwik no mug on the forecourt and Chirag not losing his edge on the attack from the back. It was losing in Indonesia last month though that jolted Saatwik. “The pressure of being India’s top pair and desperation to win was the problem. I watched Roger Federer against Nadal who was all josh all the time. But Federer was so calm, not reacting at all. I knew what we needed to do – play our game, not worry about points, focus on strategy and not get angry on the partner,” Saatwik laughs. Chirag’s a cool cat on the court, but a netted easy-tap can turn Saatwik into a growling feline. “I go grrrrr, but I never show it to him. He never loses his cool on me – he won’t react, he’s already like Federer, he’ll say, arre theeke,” the Hulk laughs. Saatwik’s father R Vishwanadham had taken his tall lad to the Gopichand academy in 2013 but never insisted he hog all the applause by playing singles. “I told coach kaisa bhi utilise karo, bas India ka baniaan pehenna hai (Just ensure he wears the India jersey),” the father recalls. A high jumper himself — he jokes Saatwik’s big jump is his pedigree before chuckling it isn’t quite — the Physical Education teacher from Rajahmundry ensured his boy played all sports: basketball, volleyball, athletics and shuttle of course, but even pace bowling in cricket. The boy lingered longer at badminton — as late as 11.30 in the night on cement courts close to the house. He’d always dig doubles Chirag went for a cricket summer camp too at age 6 in Mumbai but was smitten by badminton soon after he hit the first shuttle at Goregaon Sports Club where his Mani Swami Sir even taught him an imitation of the Taufik backhand. He’d never win a national title in juniors for a long time, but lit up the Mumbai circuit winning the kiddies meet – Manora championship, a city special, before joining Uday Pawar. He aced academics – 87 percent in Class 10 and 85 in 12th, where a tutor took him through math’s derivations and integrations and his father’s friend brushed him up on accounts a month before the boards. “I wanted him to be confident at anything he chose,” says father Chandrasekhar Shetty While Saatwik, the more bombastic of the two on court, likes Roger Federer, Chirag seeks inspiration from Rafael Nadal:
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com...n-world-championship/articleshow/70692754.cms Satwik/Shetty pull out of World Championship owing to injuries.
I don't know whether there is any rule that player shoud not wear head bands? In Thailand Open Semifinals against Ko/Shim, the umpire called Satwik and asked him to remove the head band even before the start of the match. I was wondering is there any rule? How come Antonsen is wearing?
I have seen Ashan wearing too. Have no idea about what happened to Satwik though. Maybe it was too bright? Play hard. Train harder.
