Satwik-Chirag vow to come back stronger after Thomas Cup setback

Defending champion India bowed out of the Thomas Cup in the quarter-final and finished the tournament without a medal after losing to China on Thursday.

One of the primary reasons behind India's loss was the poor performance of the former world number one doubles pair Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty.

The duo didn't look at their best after making a comeback from injury where Satwik was injured and had skipped the Badminton Asia Championships last month.

Talking about their gameplay in Thomas Cup, Satwik said," We just kept pushing ourselves even though we were not playing to the best of our abilities. But if you want to beat them, you have to play at a much better level than this. We'll take a lot of learning from this and come back stronger."

It was their second loss in two days and the Indian pair said it would come back stronger.

The match was dominated by short and snappy rallies with Liang and Wang mounting a fast attack right from the word go.

"The rallies were quite short. Whenever we played longer rallies, we were scoring points but it was a service-receiving game right from the second game and we won that. I think it was more like who's dominating in the first three shots," Chirag told PTI.

While the Indian duo had their moments, it was visible that the duo was struggling with their rhythm and they were not playing to the best of their abilities.

"We just kept pushing ourselves even though we were not playing to the best of our abilities. But if you want to beat them, you have to play at a much better level than this. We'll take a lot of learning from this and come back stronger," said Satwik.

When asked about exiting the tournament without a medal, Satwik said," When we did that well, we won many tournaments and I think it's a good tournament for us, not to doubt ourselves, but a little bit lack of confidence. We go back and we have time for the next tournament."

What's Next?

The Indian duo has two important priorities at the moment with the first being recovering from the Thomas Cup setback mentally and physically while the second being preparing for the upcoming 2024 Paris Olympics.

Satwik-Chirag will be entering the 2024 Paris Olympics as one of the favourites in the men's doubles category and is touted as one of the medal hopefuls for the country.