Satwik-Chirag dabble at Plan B; make Thailand Open finals after 3-set entertainer
That was the question posed to Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty throughout their first set of the Thailand Open Super 500. They lost the battle 19-21, but won the war, 22-20, 21-16 for a 82 minute three-set tussle that gave them their first final of the season. Like lightening, the light of the win followed the sound of noise of the past fortnight.Plan B implied, allowing former World No 1s – now No 9, Malaysians Goh Sze Fei and Nur Izuddin to dictate the opening moves like in a chess game: the battle confined to flat, fast net exchanges, where the Indians would be starved of lifts, to smash down. A taut, tense front and midcourt war-theatre, where the Indians would necessarily need to defend Goh’s jump smashes if an errant lift ballooned up.Out of their comfort zone, it would also mean Satwik playing front court, and Chirag manning the back – an adapting measure that’s necessary to be trained for in contingencies, but not ideal. Plan B, a self inflicted pressure-test started badly – 9-15 down. But then the Indians got past the criss-cross maze where they had to operate from a bending position. Not quite crouching tigers, more like scrambling rabbits, the two tall 6 foot upwards shuttlers need to urgently speak to India’s finest wrestlers or even Leander Paes to get that front court attacking crouch-squat stance right. But they have worked hard enough on the problem already and took 7 of the next 10 points by opening up the court a tad to reach 16-18. Chirag’s round the head thereafter didn’t connect, and Satwik, not very sharp on the day, watched the tape return the shuttle on his court. 19-21, the first set was lost. But Satwik-Chirag have not reached World No 1 (they are No 4 currently), by giving up. Problem-solving is now second-nature to them and their coaching team, which astutely had Manu Attri, a chameleon of a front & back court former Olympian, a Meerut man who properly understands the Malaysian-Indonesian way of front court sorcery, along with coach Tan who can untangle the flat-exchange gameplan.
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