Satwik-Chirag win Singapore Open: Furious rallies, Yorker-smash, celebratory dances

Their loss at Thailand had made fans with short memories wonder if they had lost touch with how to climb the top podium. But Singapore Sunday was yet another example of their ability to problem-solve and come up trumps even when dragged into a flat game.

The Indians lost a close first set after 18-18 as the two playmaking Indonesians aced the crisscross exchanges when closing out. But they have hardly been thwarted by these early setbacks this week.

The Indonesians targeted Satwik who was scratchy in defense early on, with even his smashes going into the net. But the Indians have been sticking to their plan of Satwik getting used to front court duties till the halfway point in the match. They would also realise that he grows in confidence exponentially as the match progresses.

While the rallies stayed short mostly, 17 shots being longest in the opener, the pace of the exchanges was breathless. Both Indonesians are known for their flat crosses and pin-prick surgical attacks as action remains concentrated on the front court. A 10 second rally could literally have double the shots in play, and the Indian crouch defense was put to the test.

Once Chirag stepped forward, the Indians picked up pace, but Satwik was also finding bissecting cross drives, even as the Indian serves swung between faults and fabulous.

Opening up a 18-15 lead in the second set gave Indians the impetus and deflated Fikri who made a bunch of rush-of-blood errors. Both him and Alfian were anyway struggling to keep shuttle in bounds on the backlines.

In the finishing stages of the second, Satwik found the line on a lofted shot and pushed a decider with a lucky net chord. The Indian attack by then had composed itself – absorbing pressure of the flat crisscrosses in defense, and pouncing on lifts given Satwik smashes were impossible to defend for the Indonesians.

Even as the Indonesians correctly attacked Satwik chasing him like a tracker about the court, he came up with the best point of the Singapore smashing success. On a dipping shuttle in front of him, when it was inches off the ground, he curled his wrists exquisitely with the racquet head pointing down to send the swirling lift to the back line for 9-5 in the decider.

These were furiously flat fast rallies which used to once annoy the Indians once. Not any more. But when Fikri got going andreduced gap to 13-15, the Indian soaring attack was back. Three smashes from Chirag got dug out by Alfian, but they had no answer to 4th from Satwik.

At 16-13 and 20-15, Satwik unleashed a hat-tip to India’s obsessed sport – cricket. With his version of yorker-smashes. No matter how good your defense, and the Indonesians have very good retrieving capabilities, there’s little you can do when the smash is directed at, aimed right at the toes. Alfian could only sweep it away on the floor – such was the precision. He snuck in a yellow card in the middle of all this for not being ready quick enough to receive serve. But his last down hit was sent flying wide by Alfian.