'We want to do well before our home crowd': Satwik-Chirag ahead of India Open

Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty are determined to do well at the India Open Super 750, starting Tuesday, after missing a chance to win their first silverware making a runner-up finish at the season-opening Malaysia Open Super 1000 last week.

The world no. 2 India pair suffered a 21-9, 18-21, 17-21 defeat against China's Liang Wei Keng and Wang Chang in the final.

“We want to do well in our home country next week, so we don’t want to relax with this, we are more hungry and next week also we want to do well in front our home crowd,” Satwik said after their runner-up finish in Kuala Lumpur on Sunday.

Satwik and Chirag, the reigning Asian Games gold medallists, will be in action at the IG Stadium in New Delhi.

Talking about their defeat to world no. 1 Liang-Wang, Chirag said, "We obviously could have played a lot better towards the end. I think what’s important is to look at the positives also, we have played some good badminton here but we are not done yet. India Open is coming up next week and we want to go one better.”

The Indian duo conceded an opening game lead to lose the match. In the deciding third game, they were leading 11-7 at the interval but lost the plot against the Chinese duo's flat exchanges after the break.

Satwik and Chirag are now determined to get the better of Liang and Wang when they face off next time.

Sunday's defeat was Satwik and Chirag's fourth in six meetings against Liang and Wang. Their last win came at the Asian Games men's team final.

“Till we retire we will be playing against them for a long time. It is always a tough fight against them. We are happy with what we wanted to achieve, we are happy we could go deep into the tournament,” Satwik said.

The Indian pair will face Fang-Chih Lee and Fang-Jen Lee of Chinese Taipei in the opening round of the India Open on January 16.