Malaysia's Aaron Chia, center, and Soh Wooi Yik, right, are celebrated by Satwiksairaj Rankireddy, left, and Chirag Shetty, center, of India after their badminton game of the men's doubles semifinal in the BWF World Championships in Tokyo. (AP)BWF World Championship 2022, Badminton Day 6 Highlights: Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty signed off with a maiden bronze medal in the men’s doubles competition of the World Championships after going down narrowly to Malaysia’s Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik in the semifinals.
The world number 7 Indian pair flattered to deceive as it squandered an opening game advantage to go down 22-20 18-21 16-21 in a pulsating 77-minute clash to bring an end to the Indian challenge at the prestigious tournament.
It was the sixth successive defeat against the Malaysian pair for Satwik and Chirag, who had lost to the same combination at the mixed team final of the Commonwealth Games early this month.
Follow highlights from BWF World Championships Day 6 below
India's Satwiksairaj Rankireddy, right, and Chirag Shetty compete during a badminton game of the men's doubles quarterfinal against Japan's Takuro Hoki and Yugo Kobayashi in the BWF World Championships in Tokyo, Friday, Aug. 26, 2022.(AP Photo/Shuji Kajiyama)
Aaron Chia masterly serve, as Malaysians bring in top top quality of shot making and combination skills to the clutch. Satwik dumps return into the net as Indians lose 22-20, 21-18, 21-16. Malaysians cross the threshold, Indians will need plenty of end-game poise-training as horrors of all those botched crunch situations of 2021 return.
Malaysians go up 6-0 on Satwik-Chirag. No turnaround today.
Tiniest of 11-10 advantages for Malaysians in decider. But they are looking very strong here with errors peeling off Indian end. Chirag will need to keep his head here, though all 4 players have slotted in nervy returns.
Malaysians fight back, breaking away at 18-14, then Chirag and his mishaps happened. His serve came under pressure, and he twinkled out to change a second racquet in this game at 20-18, and the Malaysians pounced on Satwik's right to level set scores.
Now a decider
11-10 narrowest of leads for Malaysians in the second.
But like the commentator was saying Malaysians are struggling here to shake the Indians off π
Two Chirag & Satwik errors into net though.
Aaron Chia's backhand push oversteps, dumps out the backline, giving Indians the opening set on second Set Point. 22-20. He was neatly pushed into that angle from the preceding Indian shot.
Satwik is one cool cat. Crouching tiger & all that. The angles he gets from the forecourt in the middle of a blitz. But 16-16 here, as Indian low defense against steep shots on bodies is under shredding pressure
Indians take the 11-6 first set lead. Rallies have been super short and snappy. Good serving might prove the difference. Also when Aaron goes mental with the barrage , some can drift long like that
The referee Wahyana, who also lead at Tokyo Olympics, continues to teach at a school back in Indonesia. While he was at Tokyo in 2021 for the big event, he was still coaching the kids online. “While I was in Tokyo, when I had free time and wasn’t leading the match, I took the time to teach personally online ….,” Wahyana had told CNN. "Badminton championships don’t happen every month, and I’m not assigned every month either. When I have an assignment, I happen to have a friend replace me. At our school there are two sports teachers.”
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Look.at.that.strapping.on.Aaron's shoulder
It's a sleeve of its own.
Indians in Yellow. Malaysians in the loveliest Mint green + ombreing into black.
You remember that one wild baddy season when Lee Chong Wei played with a deliberate single sleeve, freeing his hitting arm of any fabric? π
READ HERE
A 90 shot rally between Chen-Jia and Nagashino-Matsumoto ended in a Challenge.
Women are incorrigible ππ€π½ But also, slow conditions mean shuttles will get retrieved + the two pairing's outstanding defense
Chinese wrap this up.
Satwik Chirag next.
Malaysian coaching director Rexy Mainaky, has been under the pump, ever since they lost the Thomas Cup quarters in May. His joy rises and falls with how his wards perform at the global events, and he's emotionally tied in with their struggles to make a mark.
The Indians could cause him a bit of grief today, though Aaron-Soh are one of the more dependable pairings in his armour.
Aaron-Soh are yet to drop a set in this World Championships, and their power game can muscle through opponents' defences to be fair. The awareness that they have lost a bunch of semis, also puts them in a circumspect frame of mind, which can calm them down.
π "They are only the third Malaysian pair to secure a medal in both the Olympics and World Championships after Razif-Jalani Sidek and Cheah Soon Kit-Yap Kim Hock." Straits Times writes.
And therein lies the crux of the matter. The Malaysian bashfulness in going for the big titles. There's a long history of faltering, even beyond Lee Chong Wei's storied losses to Lin Dan
The Star also solemnly noted π
π "The Indians are the tallest pair left in the world meet with Satwiksairaj standing at 184cm while his partner is 186cm tall.
Now, the duo, who have created history by becoming the first Indian pair to secure a medal in the world meet, want more."
PV Sindhu's 179 cm frame has been a source of intimidation for several shuttlers over the years, till Tai Tzu Ying started dominating that rivalry.
Now the tall Indian men are quaking a few boots with their hulking, imposing, steep rising jumps and steep falling smashes. Shaking the 0-5 wall of history
From The Star:
π WILL Indians Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty serve another heartbreak to the Malaysian camp?
π The duo were the key players who turned the tide that saw India beating Malaysia in the quarter-finals of the Thomas Cup Finals and eventually went on to lift their first-ever team title in Bangkok in May.
The carnage of the Thomas Cup in May continues to haunt and intimidate Malaysians
Towering Indians out to pour cold water on Aaron-Wooi Yik’s hot run
Read the header in Malaysian top paper The Star
"We made quality shots in the first game to pressure the Koreans, and we were calm with our approach. "We became more confident after winning the first game and kept the momentum going," Wooi Yik was quoted in Straits times after the semis. Malaysians do lead Indians a staggering, 5-0 in H2H
Daddies in yet another World Championship final, after 23-21, 16-21, 21-12 win over Alfian-Ardianto.
Should Satwik-Chirag make it through the semis (and here's why they fancy their chances), it could be down to beating the Daddies for the gold.
Let's get ahead of ourselves for once, and dream on
π€©π₯
Daddies are on a planet of their own. They only simulate winning by winning more. 18-14 in decider
There's a Women's Doubles between China & Japan after this all-Indonesian MD semis, in case you want to catch a few extra winks of sleep before Satwik-Chirag come on. Or many winks π given previous Chen-Jia and Matsumoto-Nagahara faceoffs. Both sets of women, ranked 1 & 6 in the world, can be relentless at most times.
China pulled off quite a coup at the Tokyo Olympics with two gold - Women's Singles & Mixed Doubs, plus silvers in men's and women's doubles + Chen Long's Singles silver. They spent the pandemic time preps, simulating the entire bus trip - to - standing on the podium routine back home (taking the bus to stadium included), besides aping the design of Musashino Forest Sports Plaza, and also almost blanked Japan out of all podiums save the Mixed bronze.
The Japan - China rivalry is quite fierce in shuttle. So you could alternately not sleep more & catch the Women's Doubs
You'd think with the finishing woes of the Minions (Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo and Marcus Gideon), and imminent fading out of Daddies, Indonesian MD would struggle. But Fikri-Maulana have already won the All England this season & Alfi-Ardi are in Worlds semis. One proper juggernaut this is, something Indians would want to build of their own, starting with Satwik-Chirag