Satwik-Chirag Exclusive: India's Badminton Duo Opens Up On Paris Olympics Revenge, Setbacks And More

India's badminton contingent returned home empty handed from Paris after the Olympics 2024. The contingent, which featured the likes of PV Sindhu, Lakshya Sen, HS Prannoy and others, somehow failed to convert their heroics into a medal. The biggest heartbreak came when the star duo of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty also fell short against Malaysia's Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik and missed out on a medal. However, just a year later, the Indian duo got their heroic revenge over the Malaysian pair at the BWF World Championships.

The world No. 9 pair notched up a commanding win over Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik in the quarterfinals to secure their bronze medal.

Talking about their win over the Malaysian duo, Satwik stated that they never considered it as a revenge but the victory against them at the same venue did feel really good.

"Before the match, I did not think that it was any kind of a revenge or anything. I just wanted to go out and give my hundred per cent in the game. Right from the beginning, our focus was on our performances, rather than our opponents. This is what happened from out first game, when we faced China and won. Everything changes with time. Last year, we lost against Malaysia at the same venue but now we won. Yeah, you can call it a sweet revenge but as I said, we did not think about it as a revenge before the game," Satwik told NDTV in an exclusive interview.

At the BWF World Championships, the SatChi duo was having a terrific run. However, their dream of clinching the title broke with a defeat to China's 11th seeds Chen Bo Yang and Liu Yi in the semifinals.

This was their second medal at the Worlds, following their 2022 bronze, making them the only Indian pair to achieve this distinction.

"Despite losing the semi-finals, the journey we had, ever since the Olympics, hasn't been the easiest. To come out here and beat the pairs against whom we have always struggled it gives us a huge, huge boost. We never had an easy ride, right from the beginning, but really happy with the way we have played. Although we wanted to go all the way into the finals but there's always a next time, and really happy with the fact that we returned home from Paris with a medal this time," said Chirag.

On being asked about what he would like to change about the pair's campaign at the Paris Olympics, Chirag stated that he prefers focusing on the future, rather than regretting the past.

"Personally, I don't live in the past. Yeah, there are moments where I wanted to do things in a different way, but it is also understandable that my performance was also not that great. There are a lot of ifs and buts, and strategically we could have done something different but it's all in the past now," he said.

Topics mentioned in this article

Satwiksairaj Rankireddy Chirag Shetty Badminton