As the quarterfinal featuring Chirag Shetty-Satwiksairaj Rankireddy got underway on Friday at the China Masters Super 750 in Shenzhen, former Olympic bronze medallist Chris Langridge made an observation on air: “I think the Indians have the best attack in the world.”
It was a viewpoint that would be validated over the next 46 minutes as the top seeds from India breezed past the tricky Indonesian duo of Leo Rolly Carnando and Daniel Marthin 21-16, 21-14. Chirag and Satwik had a 3-0 record against the 2019 Junior World Champions coming into this match, but the contests between these two pairs were never as straightforward as that would suggest. Every one of those past three matches have gone the distance, with the Indians needing three games to win.
When the match started, it would seem we would be once again in for a thriller at 14-14. But from there on, the Indians seemed to be largely in control as the barrage of downward strokes every time they got height on the shuttle to work with, proved difficult to navigate for Carnando and Marthin.
In the fast-paced madness of men’s doubles, Satwik is usually the steadiest player on the court – the ice to Chirag Shetty’s fire, but he struggled for consistency in the early exchanges. But as good pairs do, Chirag chipped in and shouldered a heavier workload for a brief while before Satwik found his range again.
The result meant that Chirag and Satwik reached their seventh semifinal of the year, and they have won five out of their last six.
Rankireddy/Shetty 🇮🇳 rival Carnando/Marthin 🇮🇩 in a smashing quarterfinal.#BWFWorldTour #ChinaMasters2023 pic.twitter.com/0s7DGgF3a8
— BWF (@bwfmedia) November 24, 2023
Curiosity of the World Tour Finals
And that stat-line raises a curious question: Despite going up to world No 1 recently (and set to climb a few places again after this week from No 5), why have the Indian pair not qualified for the season-ending BWF World Tour Finals? In a remarkable 2023 – undoubtedly their best year on tour so far – Chirag and Satwik have won the Asian Games gold medal, and titles at the Asian Championships, Indonesia Super 1000, Korea Super 500, and Swiss Super 300.
But the two Asian titles don’t contribute points towards the qualification for the World Tour Finals, where the season’s best eight pairs will compete for hefty prize money. The regular world rankings work backward over a 52-week period where only the 10 best point tallies in the past year will be counted. For the World Tour rankings, a total of 14 tournaments from the Super circuit played during a calendar can be counted towards the points. And for the Indians, the China Masters is actually the 14th event.
In contrast, the pair at the top of this ladder are world champions Kang Min Hyuk and Seo Seung Jae. They have played a total of 17 tournaments in 2023, and that means they can discard three of their worst point tallies. As good as 2023 has been for Chirag and Satwik, it has also been a case of all-or-nothing. In tournaments where they have played well, they have invariably made it to the weekend but they have also had four first-round exits and four second-round exits.
But while the World Tour Finals are an important event in the calendar year, the Indians have stated on record that they are more worried about winning the big titles than ranking points, even if they briefly reached world No 1 this year.
Tricky test coming up
On Saturday, Satwik and Chirag will face He Ji Ting and Ren Xiang Yu, who are ranked world No 50. But don’t let that fool you as they are a newly-formed Chinese pair who have been mighty impressive recently, and put together a title-winning run last week at the Japan Masters. In the four World Tour tournaments they have played together as a new pairing after a reshuffle, they have reached the semifinal at French Open and quarterfinals at Denmark Open and Hylo Open.
Later in the day, HS Prannoy’s campaign came to a close as he went out against Kodai Naraoka 21-9, 21-14 in 43 minutes.
Pre-match expectations were one of a slug-fest between the two, as they tend to play long matches typically. But Prannoy couldn’t find his rhythm on the day except for briefly at the start of the second game. While the opener was one-way traffic, the Indian started engaging in longer rallies in the first half of Game 2. But that was short-lived as well, as he finished the match with a flurry of errors. It turned out to be one of those days where even when he played high-quality shots, he couldn’t close out points.
