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Satwiksairaj Rankireddy's beaming smile gives everyone an idea of how he feels about the Asian Games medals around his neck. However, before the doubles final, the gold medal looked difficult to obtain, not for sporting reasons but due to his partner Chirag Shetty being unwell.
On Saturday, October 7, Satwiksairaj and Chirag took to the court in Hangzhou, China, for the men's doubles final. Despite the best of their preparations and having dominated the field at the quadrennial event, there was an unforeseen problem to deal with before the match - Chirag coming down with a high fever.
A couple of Dolo tablets and ample rest for Chirag meant they were able to not just play the final but put up a commendable performance against the Republic of Korea's Choi Solgyu and Kim Wonho.
Despite trailing 14-17 in the first game, they fought back to take it 21-18. The second game was a more straightforward affair, as they won it 21-16 and wrapped up the win, and with it the gold medal, in less than an hour.
When he looks back to the events of last week, Satwiksairaj says that beyond the glittering gold, he now has renewed confidence and belief that he can remain calm and positive in the face of adversity.
"I learned to be positive irrespective of what the situation is, especially when things aren’t going well around me in the team," he told Sportskeeda on the sidelines of an event at the Pullela Gopichand Academy.
"When we were playing in the Asian Games, Chirag had fever. I was thinking about what to do, I wasn’t even sure if we would be playing a match the next day. I was thinking that if Chirag comes to the court and stands, that will be enough. I will play in such a way that I will cover for him," Satwiksairaj disclosed.
"I stayed in a positive mindset, I didn’t panic much. Being positive changes everything. And the next day, Chirag took to the court with me and even played better than me! I knew there was no problem and that I had to focus only on myself," he added.
Logic, not humbleness: For Satwiksairaj Rankireddy, being World No. 1 in doubles is not a big deal
With their Asian Games triumph, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty rose to the top spot in the latest BWF World Rankings, becoming the first Indian doubles pair (male or female) to be ranked World No. 1.
Only a handful of Indians (Prakash Padukone, Saina Nehwal, and Kidambi Srikanth - all in singles) have been ranked No. 1 in the world in badminton before Satwiksairaj and Chirag.
It has been a hugely successful year for “Sat-Chi”, as they are popularly known. They won the Swiss Open in March, the Asian Championships Dubai in April, their first BWF World Super 1000 title at the 2023 Indonesia Open in June, the Korean Open, and now the Asiad gold.
While happy with the World No. 1 ranking, Satwiksairaj isn't giving it a lot of weightage, and he has good reasons why.
"The happiness right now is about winning the medal, not about the world ranking. I feel that in doubles, being ranked No. 1 or No. 8 in the world is the same. It doesn’t matter," he explained.
"There are 30 tournaments in the year, if you play all 30 and reach the quarterfinals at all of the,, you become World No. 1. So that [the top ranking] doesn’t matter. What matters is winning tournaments, the big ones. That’s the motto for Chirag and me," Satwiksairaj added.
For the 23-year-old, the top spot in the BWF rankings is just another proof of their consistency this season.
"Yes, ranking as World No. 1 is nice, it shows our consistency. It feels really good, that’s one of the dreams and now we have to maintain it. But we never focused so deeply about the rankings," he opined.
Paris Olympics is in sight, but the focus remains in the present and on what improvements to make still
The question on everyone's mind now is how Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty will take this form to the Paris Olympics next year. For the former, however, the focus remains on the present and he isn't giving any thought to the Olympic Games just yet.
"Yeah, the confidence [from the Asian Games win] will definitely come because we always play really well in the big tournaments. But we aren’t taking it for granted. We’ll work harder for the Olympics, there’s still time for it and we have a few tournaments between now and then," he reminds us.
The Amalapuram native also explained, without divulging any details, that he and Chirag have a few improvements to make in their game before they compete at the Olympics.
"There are more small boxes we need to tick before the Olympics, we need to get into even better form by the time the Olympics come around. When we won in Dubi also we felt that we were doing well as a pair in the Asian context. Then now the Asian Games," he added.
Satwiksairaj and Chirag haven't even had the time to properly celebrate their Asian Games victory as they have already begun preparations for the Denmark Open, which gets underway on October 17.
