Perennial attackers Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty ‘keep calm’ to reach China semis | Badminton News
It’s not the new gimmick in town, for Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty have been applying it for a few years. It’s just that their peculiar form of sword-to-shield defence, where high moonballing lob-lifts, help blunt out opponent attacks, are such subtle punctuations amidst the general savagery of their smash-offence, that not many take immediate notice of the uncharacteristic shot. Not in an easy-looking 21-18, 21-16, 21-19 sashay. Playing the always-tricky Kim Astrup and Anders Skaarup Rasmussen at the quarters of the China Masters, Shetty knew the Shenzhen courts were slow, and the Danes were sturdy in defence. What this effectively meant was that the Indian smashes would get retrieved, and rallies would prolong – those are unhelpful circumstances for the attacking duo, needing a strong Plan B. “We knew conditions were quite slow, we didn’t really push ourselves to attack, and go all guns blazing. We knew they had a strong defence, so we kept our calm, didn’t rush into stuff, knew rallies would be long, we kept calm,” he said. The Satwik speciality, …





