Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty are out of the Olympics after a quarterfinal defeat in a masterclass by Malaysia's Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik. Their 21-13 14-21 16-21 loss, where they were caught napping tactically and disintegrated in the final game, ends India's medal hopes in the badminton men's doubles.
Chia and Soh are bronze medallists from Tokyo, they won the World Championships in 2022 as well. They were battle-hardened and more importantly, they were able to change their tactics to deny the Indians their strengths.
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The occasion seemed to get the better of Satwik and Chirag. These are opponents that they had figured out prior to this match. They had won their last three matches against the Malaysians, having lost eight in a row before that. But come the big occasion, experience of having handled previous days like this really told.
Satwik and Chirag were in charge of the first game after a tight and scrappy start. They went into the mid-game interval with an 11-10 lead, but then stepped it up after that to lose only three further points in the opening game.
But after that first game, Chia and Soh outclassed the Indians tactically, magnifying their weaknesses and completely nullifying their strengths.
That 10-3 run towards the end of the first game came through Satwik and Chirag being aggressive, with plenty of smashes leading to winners. But from there on, an inability to adapt to opponents who were denying them their bread and butter proved to be their downfall.
No change of pace
The biggest change from the second game onwards was the height and pace on Chia and Soh's shots. They denied any height for Satwik or Chirag to play their trademark aggressive overhead strokes. Chia, in particular, was outstanding at the net, and stuck to his flat, quick strokes.
The big change in momentum came in the second half of the second game. At the mid-game interval, the Malaysians only led 11-10, and it was still anybody's game to take. However, that is when the Indians played right into Malaysian hands. Flat, quick strokes were just being sent back at the same pace and same height, without too much purpose. Chia, an expert at the net, began to dictate rallies when he got the Indians to serve him exactly what he wanted.
Satwik and Chirag, who have often spoken about needing to calm down when the opponents aren't giving them enough chances to be aggressive, just didn't do that at all. They gave away too many points because Chia took charge at the net and the Indians never changed the pace of rallies.
Slower blocks, even proper drop shots, were the need of the hour. Instead, the Indians got caught up in quick exchanges at the net. Now, those are generally Chirag's forte, but somehow, he couldn't find any kind of consistency in his shot-making at the net. And that really hurt the Indians.
Unforced errors at crucial moments
Despite that setback in the second game, Satwik and Chirag still had their chance in the final game, and held a three-point lead at 14-11. From there, they just completely disintegrated.
They made a variety of errors. Service faults for height, service errors by hitting the shuttle out, returns into the net, Chirag once even hit air instead of the shuttle during a service return.
One thing that has never been held against Satwik and Chirag is their ability to handle pressure. But the nature of their errors at the moments they came pointed to an inability to handle the moment and the occasion that they were in.
Satwik and Chirag will no doubt have another crack in Los Angeles four years later, but for now, at a venue that has given them much joy through their careers so far, they will lick their wounds and wonder what might have been. This was an opportunity missed for the pair of them, and for Indian badminton as a whole.