Against familiar foes in a high-pressure encounter in Hangzhou, the BWF World Tour Finals campaign of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty came to an end in the semi-finals. They had beaten China’s Liang Weikeng and Wang Chang during their all-win run in the group stage. When it came to the crunch, they lost to the home favourites.
Having won three-game thrillers after going down earlier in the competition, Sat-Chi won the first game in the last-four stage. Eventually, they were beaten 21-10, 17-21, 13-21. They failed to maintain the rhythm found in the opener and also made too many unforced errors.
The match started amid deafening noise from a partisan Chinese crowd. Early unforced errors from Chirag followed by Satwik’s mistake at the net handed Liang-Wang the lead. The Indians came back with four consecutive points using sharper frontcourt deception and deep smashes from the back. At the break, they led 11-6.
The Indians continued their attacking ways and didn’t give the crowd favourites any chance of recovery by denying them advantage on flat drives. They kept attacking with long smashes from both sides. The Chinese committed unforced errors, as Satwik and Chirag closed out the game with nine straight points.
The second one saw a tight start before the Chinese lifted their game with superior backcourt play and flat drives. They won five consecutive points to lead 7-3. However, Sat-Chi responded with four straight points to draw level. A couple of wrong backhand takes by Chirag on the return helped the Chinese pair take an 11-9 at the break.
After the change of ends, Liang-Wang never let their lead slip. The Indians closed the gap to 15-16, but the Chinese held firm and foxed their opponents on the frontcourt. They earned three match points at 20-17. Chirag’s return from the front court found the net and forced a decider.
It proved to be a bridge too far for the Indians. Chirag looked off colour at the front and the Chinese kept pushing them. They tricked them with flick-serves and flat drives and capitalised on the vocal home support to sprint to a big lead. It was 11-2 at the break. They soon extended it to 14-2 by exploiting the gaps with strong smashes. Satwik and Chirag made a late comeback, but that was never going to enough.
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