Badminton
'We are still hungry, we are not satisfied': Satwik-Chirag ahead of French Open
Satwik and Chirag are the top-seeded pair at the French Open. They aim to correct the anomaly of their defeat in three consecutive finals on the BWF World Tour at the Super 750 event.
Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty (Source: BWF)
World no. 1 Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty will enter the French Open Super 750 next week as the top-seeded pair. They will have a chance to test their preparedness for the 2024 Paris Olympics at the Adidas Arena.
Satwik and Chirag played two finals in as many outings on the BWF World Tour this year. But they remained winless in the summit clashes for three tournaments in a row.
As they search for their first title of the year, Satwik does not wish to ponder too much about defeats. They feel losing in the Olympic year will only make them hungrier for wins.
"I feel losing sometimes is better than winning all the time," Satwik was quoted as saying by the Badminton World Federation.
Satwik and Chirag started the year with a defeat in the final at the Malaysia Open Super 1000 against Liang Wei Keng and Wang Chang of China. At the India Open, the very next week, they lost to Kang Min Hyuk and Seo Seung Jae of Korea.
Last year, they wrapped up the season with a runner-up finish at the China Masters, where they succumbed to Liang and Wang in the final.
They could not propel India to success at the Badminton Asia Team Championships as the team lost to Japan in the quarterfinals.
But the Indian duo are not too concerned about their struggle in the final.
“When it really matters it will come. We just need to hang in there. We played three finals, we lost three, it was very close in those matches. We could’ve kept calm in crucial situations," stated Satwik.
“There are a lot of good things to take away. We are still hungry, we are not satisfied. Losing is better sometimes, it will give a lot of motivation. For me, losing the final will give motivation to make the crowd happy the next time," he added.
Though Satwik-Chirag lost in the finals, they remained focused on winning top events at the French Open and All England Open in back-to-back weeks.
“We’d never played back-to-back finals on consecutive weeks. The positive thing is we are consistent; the not-so-good thing is that we didn’t win. Obviously you can’t win everything. Our target is to win the big events. We just need to stick right there and eventually things will fall into place," said Satwik.
