CHENNAI: “The job is still not done. We played some really good badminton today.”
This was Chirag Shetty after a monumental win against Hendra Setiawan and Mohammad Ahsan of Indonesia (third seeds) to ensure a medal for India in the ongoing Badminton Asia Championships after over five decades.
That is the mentality that has made Chirag and his doubles partner, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy, come to the fore in recent years and become pathbreakers. They continue to script new chapter in their flourishing career.
Barely twenty-four hours later, that desire was evident when they beat reigning Olympic champions, Lee Yang and Wang Chi-Lin of Chinese Taipei, in the semifinals. With this latest success, the Indian pair became the first from the country to reach the final of the continental meet since 1965.
A game that was highly absorbing, the Indians looked sharp as ever and were ticking all the right boxes. Both players were finding joy from both ends of the court, employing some big smashes to put their opponents in defensive mode and thereby snatch points.
And even though their win didn’t come in the desired manner (Chinese Taipei pair retired after Wang got injured midway into the second game), they were ahead and seemed destined to go step closer to the title.