Singapore Open badminton: After hard-fought 2nd round win, Satwik-Chirag brace for stern test from new world No 1 pair

The opening game was a tight battle from the moment the Indonesians closed down an early 3-7 deficit. The two pairs were trading points, neither winning more than 3 consecutive points in the entire game. But when it mattered, the Indonesians went from 18-19 to 21-19. In the second game, the Indians stepped up on the gas from 15 to force the decider. Gutama and Isfahani and made a late charge when the finish line was in sight for SatChi at 17-13. The gap came down to a point but the Indians held their nerve to close it out 21-19.

On Friday, SatChi will face the newly promoted world No 1 Malaysian team, a pair they had faced earlier at India Open when they had been newly promoted to world No 2. “We lost our last match to them (at India Open) but they’re world No.1s now. Our battles with them have always been close so this should another good one,” Chirag told BWF.

In fact, in New Delhi, Satwik and Chirag admitted to being taken by surprise by the flat and furious gameplay of the Malaysians. And their height differences played a part too. “The shuttles were too fast, and they are good at their flat game,” Satwik had explained after the match. “Because they are shorter than us, and their hands are very strong we couldn’t really control the pace of the rallies. They were really good at blocking also whereas we were not in a rhythm.” Chirag had conceded being surprised by Goh and Nur, against whom the Indians had a strong Head-to-Head record before the Malaysians’ recent meteoric rise. “I think they were quite good in the service situations which we didn’t really expect because probably we didn’t prepare for it.”

In Singapore, despite the possible rustiness of their layoff, Chirag and Satwik won’t be surprised with coach Tan Kim Her and mentor Pullela Gopichand behind their preparations. It should be a marker of where the Indians stand on their return to action.

Sindhu goes down fighting

The day didn’t start well for PV Sindhu against world No. 5 Chen Yufei of China as she struggled massively in the opening game. But the Indian fought back, forced a decider and even had a lead at the final change of ends but her finishing problems kicked in once more as she lost 9-21, 21-18, 16-21 in 65 minutes in a hard-fought second-round match.

Sindhu, who recently slipped to world No. 17, showed glimpses of her old form, especially in the second game where she led 19-12 before closing it out 21-18. However, the decider saw her struggle to match Chen’s sharp smashes and court control. It was Sindhu’s seventh loss to Chen in 13 meetings.
Despite a dominant 21-14, 21-9 win over Canada’s Wen Yu Zhang in the opening round, the 2022 Singapore Open champion failed to build momentum.

There was disappointment for India in the men’s singles too as HS Prannoy bowed out following a 16-21 14-21 loss to Frenchman Christo Popov in the pre-quarterfinals. The eighth-seeded Indian pair of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand also went down after losing 8-21 10-21 to Chinese combination of Jia Yi Fan and Zhang Shu Xian in the second round. The mixed doubles combo of Rohan Kapoor and Ruthvika Shivani Gadde couldn’t get past Hong Kong’s Tang Chun Man and Tse Ying Suet, losing 10-21 16-21 in 31 minutes.