All posts tagged: Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj rankireddy

Watching Shawshank Redemption gave Chirag Shetty hope of rallying from back injury

Watching Shawshank Redemption gave Chirag Shetty hope of rallying from back injury

Published by Webster

On a particularly wretched day stuck at home, with chances of a scheduled return from a back injury fading, India’s terrific doubles shuttler, Chirag Shetty, returned to his favourite movie, Shawshank Redemption. Shetty didn’t pause at Morgan Freeman’s Red saying hope was a dangerous thing. He soaked in the complete struggle of Andy Dufresne, till actor Tim Robbins, declared “…hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things and no good thing ever dies.” The last few months have squeezed Shetty and his doubles partner, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy dry, with grimness and tragedies. Olympics loss, patchy form, Satwik losing his father to a cardiac arrest, then felled by chickenpox. And Shetty silently battling spasmic back pain episodes – a mix of pain and frustration for someone who believes in being “productive every day” and can’t sit still. Story continues below this ad So Shetty mined out the Shawshank script to deal with desolation. “I revisited Shawshank Redemption, my favourite.It just reminded me of Andy’s line on ‘hope’. To keep it for 20 long years. He …

Satwik-Chirag can’t win you a team title, when other 4 matches hang in balance | Badminton News

Satwik-Chirag can’t win you a team title, when other 4 matches hang in balance | Badminton News

Published by Webster

It would be slightly silly to say India could have medalled at this week’s Asian Mixed Team championships, had Chirag Shetty-Satwiksairaj Rankireddy not been separately rested and played all three matches on back-to-back days. The team event demands proficiency over 5 matches – two singles and three doubles. The measured view, and the accurate one if you cared for their careers, would be that neither Satwik-Chirag, nor HS Prannoy needed to travel to Qingdao for a tournament where every other Asian country, powerhouses included, were fielding new faces, and experimenting with combinations, given this year has the Sudirman Cup. PV Sindhu did the smart thing to not aggravate a niggle she sensed at Guwahati training camp, and opted out. Sadly for the rest, given they don’t have Olympic medals and they aren’t viewed as stars, they get carted around at Team events and pressed into duty, even when it is evidently clear that both Satwik and Chirag need to guard their fitness, and peak only for the majors, not be used as workhorses. Story continues …

Satwiksairaj Rankireddy, Chirag Shetty barge into semis

Satwiksairaj Rankireddy, Chirag Shetty barge into semis

Published by Webster

India’s crack men’s doubles pairing of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty advanced to the semi-finals of the Malaysia Open 2025, which is a prestigious BWF World Tour Super 1000 event. Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty took down Malaysia’s Ong Yew Sin and Teo Ee Yi in straight games — with the score line reading 26-24, 21-15 — in a dominant performance on court. Ong Yew Sin and Teo Ee Yi got massive support from the home fans. But it did not faze Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty. “This is a good start to the year, we couldn’t have started on a better note. We want to still go as deep in the tournament as possible,” Chirag Shetty said after their win. “As athletes, these are the kind of stadiums you want to play in. You want to play in packed arenas in the crucial parts of a tournament. We really could not have asked for a better crowd. Obviously the crowd was supporting the local pair. But as a professional badminton athlete, this is one of …

All England Open: Satwik and Chirag’s defeat in round of 16 a reminder of how competitive men’s doubles badminton is, there are no guarantees | Badminton News

Published by Webster

When last week Marcus Fernaldi Gideon announced his retirement, the tributes inevitably were centered around the domination that he and Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo had on badminton’s BWF World Tour. The duo – known popularly around the world as ‘Minions’ – were an absolute men’s doubles tour de force. In what will go down as one of the greatest statistical anomalies in badminton, they somehow never managed to win an Olympics or World Championships medal (leave alone title) but on the circuit, they were incredibly consistent. They spent an astonishing 226 weeks at the top of the world rankings from 2017 to 2022. On 20 September 2022, Gideon and Sukamuljo were world No 2 for the first time since 2017 as Japan’s Takuro Hoki/Yugo Kobayashi – world champions in 2021 – took over. Since then alone, there have been five changes at the top of the world rankings in men’s doubles. In the week following the retirement of Gideon, the All England Open 2024 badminton championships has thrown up a timely reminder of just how wide …

The subtle art of giving away nothing: From Dhoni to Sinner to Satwik-Chirag to The Godfather | Tennis News

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About a month back, Novak Djokovic, on CBS’s 60 minutes, had shared a secret that has made him history’s deadliest predator on a tennis court. Between games, while sitting on the bench; Djokovic said, his eyes are always focused on the big screen as he is busy reading the close-up frame of his unsuspecting rival. “I am looking at him … how is he drinking water, is he sweating more than usual, is he breathing deeply or not. I look at how he is communicating with his team .. all these elements really affect the performance and the game itself.” On Friday at the Australian Open, Djokovic, for close to three-and-half hours over 4 sets, tried looking for clues to crack the 22-year-old Italian Jannik Sinner. He didn’t spot any and suffered an epic loss in the semi-final. Maybe, Djokovic was wasting his time, the young challenger was inscrutable. An expressionless match-face and an elegant mind that never gets clouded with thoughts of defeat, is something that only champions are blessed with. India’s most famous …

India Open 2024: For HS Prannoy and Co, home comfort calling as badminton’s top stars descend on New Delhi | Badminton News

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Kunlavut Vitidsarn and An Se Young made a fine start to 2023, winning titles at the India Open. Few months down the line, the two of them would go on to be crowned World Champions in Copenhagen. As the race to Paris 2024 heats up, the two defending champions and reigning Worlds gold medallists will be back in New Delhi alongside a galaxy of badminton stars as the capital hosts the 2024 edition of the India Open Super 750 starting from Tuesday. The India Open has been the prime BWF event in the country for more than a decade, but last year saw a significant upgrade as the tournament was moved up to Super 750 status, just two levels below the top grade on the World Tour. For starters, as one of the six Super 750 events on the circuit, BWF mandates that a group defined by rankings as ‘Top Committed Players’ will be required to play, barring injuries and medical situations. As one of the two major events in January, especially at the start …