‘Lack of sparring partners affected Satwik-Chirag’: Malaysian coach Kim Tan Her

HYDERABAD: Renowned Malaysian coach Kim Tan Her, who paired up Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty a decade back, achieved his second major success in his second stint with them with the Singapore Open title. Tan spoke to TOI from Indonesia.Excerpts...Despite playing well, what is the reason for not winning atitle in two years?Other countries like Malaysia, Indonesia, Korea, China have improved a lot. Also, they have many pairs to train with. For example, Korea have two strong teams, Malaysia have six, Indonesia have five and China have five good pairs. Sparring against good pairs is helpful and Satwik-Chirag do not have this advantage.

How do you rate the Singapore Open victory?This is the first title after a big gap and I believe more will come in future.

Last year our results were quite consistent, 8 semifinals, 2 finals and a World Championships bronze medal.How do you think this victory will help them to get back to their best?I have told them to think how they were when they were the world No. 1 pair. Injuries, of course, are one reason. The second was the worry that people are catching up with them again. I told them, if we maintain discipline, train hard as before and be mentally strong, there is nothing to worry about.