Indian shuttler Chirag Shetty: ‘Winning the maiden Super 1000 event with Satwiksairaj is quite special for us’

By Vivek Prabhakar Singh
Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], June 21 (ANI): Indian shuttler Chirag Shetty, who clinched the Indonesia Open men's doubles title with his partner Satwiksairaj Rankireddy, said that winning their maiden Badminton World Federation (BWF) World Tour Super 1000 event is quite special and the duo had the belief that they could do it.
In an interview with ANI, Chirag and Satwiksairaj talked about their Indonesia Open title win, being number three in men's doubles rankings, Asian Games this year and being considered a medal prospect for the Olympics 2024 in Paris.
"Winning a Super 1000 event is quite special for both of us. We always knew we had it in us to do so. It was just a matter of time before we could achieve that. The way we played throughout the week was incredible," Chirag told ANI.
He said that the feeling of winning the Indonesia Open has finally sunk in.
"Now as I look back, it was a memorable tournament for us. We beat World number one in the quarterfinals and beat the World Champions, who we had never beaten before in the finals," he added.
India's men's doubles badminton pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty defeated the second-seeded Malaysian pair of Aaron Chia and Wooi Yik Soh 21-17, 21-18 to claim India's first-ever BWF Super 1000 World Tour title in the final of the Indonesian Open played in Jakarta on Sunday.
But prior to this meeting in the final, the Malaysian duo had defeated 'Sat-Chi', as the Indian duo is popularly known in all of their eight meetings.
Talking about their feelings as a duo encountering a formidable opponent in the final, Chirag said that he and Satwiksairaj decided to stick to their game plan and added that they were holding themselves back in their last eight meetings.
"We knew we had to stick to our game plan. In our previous eight meetings, we held ourselves back. We were a little skeptical about following our game plan. A few good returns from them and we used to become a little reactive rather than being the ones dictating the terms. This time it was different when we made receiving mistakes, we were not affected by it and told ourselves that it is okay, we cannot be complacent and have to be the ones dictating the terms, be more pro-active," said Chirag.
On the winning moment, Chirag said that he was totally in disbelief.
"The moment shuttle hit the net, luckily for us, it did not topple over to our side. I just fell down on the court and was in disbelief, pulling my headband in disbelief. I was in disbelief for a few seconds. Then Satwik lifted me up. We were both jubilant and happy with our win. To beat them in a final, in our first-ever Super 1000 final, it could not have got any better," he concluded. (ANI)