Serve and verve for elusive double impact

HYDERABAD: When it comes to badminton, all eyes would be firmly placed upon the Indian singles players since they are one of the favourites to medal at the Commonwealth Games, which commences on April 4. On the other hand, the doubles players have been completely overshadowed by the might of those singles specialists. And talking about doubles, India has never won a medal of any colour in men’s doubles or mixed doubles.

However, the men’s pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty have displayed enough promise over the last one year to metamorphosise into a strong medal prospect.If they manage to keep up their game, they just might make history in Gold Coast. “We are feeling very confident about our game, considering the way we have performed in the last few months.

And I’m quite certain that we will come back with a medal,” Satwiksairaj told Express, a day before the badminton contingent is scheduled to leave. The youngsters, all of 17 and 20 respectively, recently broke into the top-20 of the BWF rankings for the first time, with their current ranking being 21. Reaching two Superseries quarterfinals last year and then the semifinals of this year’s Indonesia Masters definitely added to their reputation. In preparations for CWG, they have especially emphasised on the new service rule, something that had troubled them in their All England pre-quarterfinals setback (16-21, 21-16, 21-13) to the World No 2 Danish pair of Mathias Boe and Carsten Mogensen. “We lost some crucial points due to service faults even though we had a good lead. So, we have tried to a lot in the days after All England to adjust to the new rule.

We installed a similar equipment at the academy (Pullela Gopichand Academy) used by the umpires to check the validity of a serve,” Satwiksairaj asserted. Despite the confidence of medal l ing, the teenager is quite aware of the roadblocks he would have to evade to achieve their target. “The pairs from Malaysia and Great Britain clinched silver and bronze (respectively) at the Rio Olympics. So, it will not be easy.” At the moment, things seem to be falling into place for the duo.

“We understand each other’s games so well. Chirag is best at the net and I play the attacking shots from the back. He lifts and then I am ready for the smashes. We can anticipate each other’s shots. It has been working out tremendously for us,” he concluded. With the mixed doubles duo of Pranaav Jerry Chopra and N Sikki Reddy and the women’s doubles duo of Ashwini Ponnappa and Reddy also in the fray, the contingent might return with a rich haul of medals.

vishal@newindianexpress.com