Satwik-Chirag: Opponents respect us more now

With six individual titles, a rise to World No. 1, victory at the Asian Championships and the historic Asian Games gold medal, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty have had a near-perfect 2023. In a freewheeling discussion on  Sportstar Hangouts, ahead of the 2024 season, Indian badminton’s latest Khel Ratna winners discussed their no-fear temperament in finals, the joy of shutting down hostile crowds, secret of good communication as well as Chirag’s penchant for orange bandanas and shirtless celebrations.

It’s been a near perfect year. What do you think could have gone better?

Chirag: I think it’s been a really good year. We played six individual finals and won five. Obviously, not the perfect year. A few misses but overall, we’ve ticked a lot of boxes. Like, winning the Asian Games gold (in men’s doubles) and silver in the team event, becoming World No. 1, winning the Asian Championships and winning our first Super 1000 event.

Is there a difference in how your opponents treat you now? How do you deal with the increase in expectations?

Satwik: Opponents respect us more now. Earlier, a match against us was like a 50-50 affair but now they feel like they have to [take us seriously]. Everyone watches our matches and has some strategy [to deal with us]. We don’t take it to our head so much. We know what to do and don’t want to think so much about what is happening behind [the courts]. We just want to focus on what is there in our hands. There are a lot of expectations, and a lot of things going on. People watch us. Everyone wants us to win a lot of tournaments. If we lose in the first round, there is banter. They’re like, “How can they lose in the first round?”

Sometimes I feel it is good to lose in the first round. We had big failures this year but then after that we had big tournaments too. Before the Asian Games, we lost at the China Open in the first round. We played a very okay game. I didn’t think we played badly or something, but it wasn’t to our level. We sat with our coach, talked with our psychologist, made a plan and then, we were on to the Asian Games with full fire. Then, again, we had Singapore and Thailand where we lost in the second or first round and right after that we won the Indonesia Open. So, a few losses here and there helped us stay on the right track.

What is your equation with crowds? There have been times where the crowd was against you, like when you were in China or Indonesia. Are you someone like Pat Cummins who said he enjoys the moment the crowd goes silent?

Chirag: Same. Exactly the same.

Satwik: We love playing against the crowd. Mostly when we are in Indonesia, they would be against us. When we were at the Indonesia Open and playing against an Indonesian pair, they would be booing us, and I said this is the time we had to prove ourselves. They will be commenting on our  Instagram posts. That gives us a lot of motivation when someone is booing. They will be booing and inside I will be laughing. “ Tereko batata hu mai kya hu (I’m going to tell you what I am)”

Now, people in the China Open actually cheered us. It’s much more positive for us compared to before. When we come onto the court, we will get a loud cheer. But I still think if the crowd is against us, we play better. I don’t want to be on the positive side of the crowd. They need to wake the animal inside me. Them booing me makes me not so relaxed; I’ll want to play with fire.

Prior to 2023 you had a terrible record against some pairs. It was 0-8 against Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik. You have two wins now — including one at the Asian Games. What clicked?

Chirag: I think we got our first win in the Indonesia Open final. What changed was that we didn’t really hold ourselves back. Earlier, when we used to play them, we were like — “Oh my God! If we don’t play perfectly, they’ll just come and tap it.” Aaron has a really good spin serve. We used to be extra cautious when we were receiving it.

In that final, we were like — “Even if we make a mistake, it does not matter but we need to be the ones taking charge.” We actually started 5-2 down, because we hit the first few service returns pretty much out of the court.

But we said it was okay. We need to take the shuttle high when he is doing that spin serve because then eventually, they’ll have to lift it. The attitude changed completely from there on. Even in the Asian Games final, we did the same thing. We were the ones dictating the terms.

You guys have multiple nicknames — Twin Towers, Brothers of Destruction, Sat-Chi. Which ones do you prefer? Do you have any nicknames for each other?

Chirag: I think ‘Sat-Chi’ has stuck amongst all those nicknames. It’s in the past two years that it has come out. I like the ring to it — Sat-Chi. It sounds quite good. Between each other, Satwik calls me ‘Shetty bhai’ and I call him ‘Satwik’. I don’t call a lot of people by their nicknames.

Chirag, you have become a bit of an icon with your choice of headbands. Why did you choose those colours?

Chirag: I have headbands in four or five colours. I don’t choose them according to the match I’m playing. It can be any random colour but, in the quarterfinals, semifinals and final, I pretty much keep it the same — white, yellow or orange.

The orange one is what I mostly use in the final.

What about you Satwik?

Satwik: I just cut my hair before tournaments. Otherwise, it comes over my eyes when I play. The length to which I keep my hair depends on how many tournaments I’m going to be away from home. I’ve tried wearing headbands before, but I didn’t like it. It’s not my style. There needs to be one stylish player on the court and that’s Shetty  bhai. I don’t want to take his place. We have a few girl fans when we are playing, and they will call Shetty  bhai — Chirag Chirag! Throw your T-shirt! And that is enough for me!

You guys also have very iconic celebrations after your wins. How did that start?

Chirag: It probably started after the Thomas Cup, where I removed my T-shirt and Satwik did his first dance. Neither of us planned it but it came about because of the environment and because of our teammates and stuff. After that it became something of a ritual. At the Korean Open we did the Gangnam Style celebration because we felt it would be quite good to do it in Korea.

What’s the best reaction you got to these celebrations?

Chirag: I had the grandmother of one of my friends commenting under one of these posts saying you shouldn’t remove your T-shirts. You win the match and it’s OK that you are happy, but you don’t remove your T-shirts. There are many other ways to celebrate. I’ve never met her in person, but it was pretty funny to have that comment on my post.

You guys have your own individual style. How did you get together as a group?

Satwik: We had coach Tan (Kim Her) who said we must be together. He told us to go out, roam together, have a meal together and share a room together. These small things changed us. And we got to know more about each other as we travelled together. From my side I opened up a little more when I started talking to him. When we started getting along, it helped us on the court as well. Initially i was a very Telugu person. I watched only Telugu movies, hung out only with other Telugu people. Ate almost only South Indian food. Shetty  bhai is almost the opposite. He doesn’t eat Indian food. He likes eating Korean or Japanese food. So, we learned to compromise. For one meal we would eat Indian food and for the next, we might go to his favourite kind of restaurant. It’s like a marriage. We fight but sort it out. It’s not like we have big fights but if we have small disagreements; we will sort it out there itself. It’s become much better these days. We have now been together for nearly 7-8 years. We trust each other. We are like brothers now.

Chirag: Satwik’s adapted a lot. He’s started trying different cuisines. Earlier it was just Indian. Now he has Thai. Chinese of course. Anything with rice is good for him.

When you communicate, you seem like you have some signs to signal each other. What are they?

Satwik: That’s to show where I’m going to serve. I’ll usually make either 1-2 or 3. 1 means I’m hitting the T-Joint. 3 is in the corner. Thumbs up means I’m going to flick it back. It’s been there for a very long time. There are other things that I’ll communicate through speaking. For example, I might want to say that I’m going to be covering one side. So, I’ll say ‘Shetty  bhai  main aage bhagunga’. If our opponents aren’t Indian, they won’t understand.

Initially it was tough even for me to say these things (to Chirag) because I only spoke Telugu. Then [when I started playing with Chirag] this became a bit of a struggle because I would think how I should say this in Hindi. And by the time I realised how to say what I wanted; the rally would be over. When I got better then it became much easier.

You will have a difference in opinions. How do you sort it out, especially during a match?

Satwik: We never got that situation yet. If we are not on the same page, we have a third person — the coach sitting behind us — to act as a tiebreaker. We follow his strategy. We are on the same page when we both are on the same strategy. Now though, I know 100 per cent Shetty  bhai kidhar marega. (where Chirag will hit). We stick to our strong points, which is to attack.

Shetty  bhai ka kaam hai ki mujhe opening dena hai (Chirag’s role is to give me openings). My job is to finish it. The next shuttle Chirag will catch. So that’s plan A for us. But if that is not working and we become confused, then Mathias (Boe) will be back sitting, and he will tell us to do this or that.

When you started, doubles wasn’t a big thing in India. Why did you choose to be a doubles player then?

Chirag: At that time, when we started out, there were hardly a lot of doubles players, and you didn’t really get that amount of importance and respect in India. Firstly, badminton isn’t that popular a sport in India compared to cricket. So, if you are a badminton player already, your popularity is low. If you are a doubles player, then compared to singles players your popularity is even lower.

If we wanted to make money, we wouldn’t have been doubles players. We chose doubles because we genuinely liked playing doubles a lot more than singles. Now, things have definitely changed. The youngsters nowadays have that option where they can see themselves having a good career playing doubles.

Going into the Olympic season, have you and Matthias planned anything different?

Chirag: He wants us to win a medal and so do we, but there’s still 7-8 months to go. We keep really short-term targets. We would completely start thinking about the Olympics just a month or two before it. That is the ultimate goal, but we have many tournaments leading up to it. We would like to do well in those tournaments and then start thinking about the Olympics.

You have been working with Mathias (Boe) since before the last Olympics. What do you think is unique about the way you work with him?

Satwik: He has a more strategic mindset (compared to the other coaches we have worked with). He has played with all these players who are there in the circuit right now. He knows their weaknesses and what can be done to exploit them. He isn’t someone who played 10-15 years ago and is now a coach. He himself was on the circuit only 3-4 years ago and knows what needs to be done. He doesn’t have that physical game but is smart. On the other hand, we are very physically strong. We have the capacity to play those two-hour long matches. When he came here, he added that smartness to our game. We now have a game plan before we enter the court for different situations we might be in, and we try to stick to it. Our practice sessions focus more on the mental aspect than just the physical one. Our sessions are quite short — around 1 hour 10-20 minutes — but they have a lot more intensity.

Unlike in the past, you have managed to stay relatively injury-free this year. Is there anything you’ve been doing?

Satwik: I actually got injured at the Malaysia Open at the start of the year but that was something that I picked up in a match. You can’t avoid those. But I took a break after that until the All England. From then on, I started observing my body and when it required me to take rest. We had a talk with our coach that when I start feeling like my body needs rest, then we are not playing any tournament. This year we didn’t play so many tournaments. But when we entered the tournament, we were playing 100 per cent. Like, once you’re fit, you’re playing, otherwise you don’t. So that has helped us.

In doubles you work as a team but what happens when one of you is injured. Is it frustrating for the other partner?

Chirag: You feel bad, but injuries are a part and parcel of the game. If you are putting yourselves through so much training and stress, the body is bound to get injured at some point. Obviously, you need to take care of it.

One needs to be supportive of their injured partner. If you are a singles player your fitness is your sole responsibility — it’s your body, and if you get injured, you lose money, matches, or whatever. But in a doubles partnership, you need to think about your partner. It’s like a marriage. There must be adjustments, and you need to back each other up when things are not working well for you.

You had a string of wins in tournament finals dating to 2019. Don’t you get nervous, or do you just go to a different level? Was there a particular win in the final that changed things for you?

Chirag: We are always a little pumped up when we play in finals. Playing in big matches is what you aim for as a player. It would be a lie if someone said there is no pressure; it’s up to you how you convert it into motivation. That pressure spurs you to do even better than in the previous couple of matches. Like Satwik said, the Thomas Cup final, where we won after being 17-20, was very crucial. To win it in that fashion, I think, gave us the confidence that we can play and win big finals. Not just win but win from any situation.

Do you follow the Indian doubles badminton scene? Do you talk to youngsters?

Satwik: We try to follow who is playing well. If he’s making some wrong choices, we will try to correct him. Or if there are problems with partnerships. Sometimes, if someone is not playing well, their partner would want to change immediately and split up. So, we try to tell them to be patient and communicate with each other.

Do you take inspiration from other athletes?

Chirag: Rafael Nadal and Usain Bolt have always been my sporting heroes. I try to imbibe all of their good qualities as much as possible. They have that never-say-die attitude and intensity where they give 100 per cent on the court, but when they are off it, they’ll be as chill as possible.

Satwik: I’m the complete opposite of him. I like Roger Federer and his calmness. And Dhoni, too, for the same reason — he is very calm in pressure situations. I also admire how passionate Virat Kohli is about his cricket. There is no rest day for him. He’s very hungry every day, like he wants more, more, more, more and more. I wonder whether, as a human, he gets tired at least once. He plays with the same fire whether he’s playing for a club, a small match or a major competition. He’s consistent with his fitness as well. That’s the quality of a top athlete.

Do you guys play any other sports to relax?

Satvik: I used to play before, but nowadays I try to avoid it. Once I got a very silly injury in my hand while playing beach volleyball. I was so embarrassed that I pretended I fell off a bike. I just don’t want to let that happen again. I want to take care of my body. I also like to play basketball but not the high-impact kind. I prefer just throwing the ball into the basket, like Stephen Curry.

Chirag: Something similar happened to me in 2017. I was playing football with my friends when I tripped over the ball. I had a bad ankle sprain and since then I have not gone back to the football field. Also, we don’t have the time to play any other sport right now. If we train for six days, we will be dead tired by Sunday. We just want to chill and not play any other sport and get our body even more tired.

Apart from the Olympics, what are your hopes from 2024

Chirag: To be happy, enjoy the process and be patient. When we do that, I think we play even better. Looking back at 2023, winning and standing on the podium did make us happy but the process leading up to it was even more special.