Satwik-Chirag Indonesia Open Badminton Quarterfinal 2025 Highlights: Satwik-Chirag go down in straight games

Two brilliant rallies. BO badminton this. Fast paced, crazy defense, Indian attack being repelled twice. Man has been stellar, but Tee got in the curling floater to take match point at 16-20 and they eventually convert. 

Shivani Naik

It is not to be for Satwik-Chirag in Jakarta. The former champions go down in straight games against the recent Malaysia Masters champions. That's the end of India's contention at Indonesia Open this year, the calendar's 3rd Major event. 

And Malaysians prevail! Man Wei Chong and Tee Kai Wun have registered their first win against Satwik-Chirag. Some really exciting rallies in the 2nd half of the 2nd game but the Indians left themselves too much to do.

The Malaysians have turned it up in the last few points! Great hustle from Satwik to keep the rally going and this time Tee Kai Wun with a great smash down the line to the left of Satwik, that is near undefendable. 

Match points, four of them for the Malaysians. 

Superb rally and a must-win point there for Malaysians. Superb from Man at the net to kill the rally. 

Another fabulous rally! That's a 36-shot exchange and the longest of the match! Great from Man again with his backhand catching Chirag shrt at the net. 

Oh the comeback is on is it? It's a 1-point game. Agreat third shot winner from Satwik. 

A good leave from Satwik at the backline... and they are just about staying alive in this match. 

A good attacking point from the Indians next up...pressure from the backcourt, three straight flat smashes, and it is a 2-point game. 

Oh good leave from Chirag at the forehand side. It is just wide and it is a 3-point game. 

If one thing's obviois from the last two weeks (if it wasn't already from last year) is that Satwik and Chirag both need to work on their serves and returns. Attack and defence in these situations have been problematic. The service faults are easily workout-able of course but they need to add some variations. 

Man Wei Chong - has a wide range of outrageous backhands - he plays mid - pivot. Second gobsmacker of two weeks

Shivani Naik

A stunning backhand winner from Man Wei Chong there. 

It's now a 6-point lead now for the Malaysians soon. 

Random trivia: When Saina Nehwal won first of her three Indonesia Open crowns (stunning innit?), Mumbai locals had its first delayed trains day that morning of that 2009 season. Indonesia in June has always been about rains in India, and subsequent titles for Srikanth and Satwik-Chirag.

It was perhaps India's first big title of the new era. 

Tall order here for Satwik-Chirag. 9-13 down in second, with Malaysians using the altitude parallel game pretty well.

Shivani Naik

Alright then. 3 quick points after the interval and it is now a 3-point game, good pressure from the Indians here (and one big missed opportunity for the Malaysians too as they missed open spaces and put the shuttle long). 

Quickly though, a great 1-2-3 combo from Malaysia to reestablish a 5-point lead.

Some more good defending by the Indians, but once again, it's more in desperation than as part of some grand plan. The Malaysians have constantly kept the Indians pinned back and reacting. Man-Tee running away with it now unless Tan coach can come up with a plan to arrest this slide. 

This is now starting to slip away for the Indians. Big time. 

Oh dear. Another significant misunderstanding between Chirag and Satwik there. Chirag briefly goes up at the net to intercept but pulls out and Satwik is late to the shot from his corner and hits the net. A fairly long chat between the Indians after that point and the chair umpire is asking them to get a move on. 

POINT OF THE MATCH! Longest rally too at 29 shots. Terrific from all four players but right through the point you got the feeling that the Indians were scrambling for position more than they usually do. Eventually after some really sharp defensive work, Chirag makes a soft backhand error. 

Parabolic lifts from Man (With SRK hairdo from Koyla), made it tough for Satwik to kill off with smashes. It's extreme taking off of pace and awkward height to smash from as Indians lose opener 19-21. Controlling shuttle at the net is going to see many frustrated gnashing reactions all round.

Shivani Naik

More good crouchy-crouchy defending from Chirag as the Indians get back tie serve early, can they open up a cushion here? 

Chirag nets the shuttle from the backcourt and it is game point for Man-Tee. A good flick serve from Man Wei Chong has Chirag scrambling a bit and the Malaysians exploit the space well on court to close it out. 

A super tight opening game and once more, Satwik-Chirag have to fight back from a game down. 

Great winner by Tee Kai Wun at the net followed by a moment of brilliance from Chirag aiming for the backhand corner again! 

And a superb 1-2 from the Indians next point to level things up at 19. What a finish to this game we have. 

Oh great recovery from Chirag. His serve out wide is read well by the Malaysians but Chirag dives to his left to keep the shuttle in play while crouching. And the Indians eventually end up winning the rally to get it back level. 

As ever, the decisive moments of the game is here. 

A fine third shot from Chirag this time to make it a 1-point game.

Oh wow, is that in from Chirag? Another lovely third shot, this time he looks for the backhand corner deep with a nice crosscourt. It is being challenged by the Malaysians and they get it right! That was so close. The match could have been back level. (Another review that takes forever! What is up with the tech today?_

The game swings again, twice in two rallies that Chirag has missed the backline comfortably. And suddenly the Malaysians have a 3-point lead. This time a Chirag mistake on return. He needs to pick his game back up. 

Istora always has strange drifty conditions where shuttles need to pass through a mini-typhoon of draught that forms right above the net. You can literally see the bird getting Bermuda triangled on front court.

Shivani Naik

There we go, the preferred Indian attack with Chirag taking charge at the net. Terrific point to level things up and then a great drive serve to put the Indians in the lead again. 

You don't see this often but Satwik with a series of mistakes. Usually, the steadier of the two, at least doesn't repeat mistakes in short bursts but he nets a cpiple of shuttles from the front court, trying to force the issue at the net which is usually Chirag's domain. 

But the Indians do well to cut the lead to two points... and Man-Tee eventually take a 2-point lead as Satwik sends a flick serve long. 

Very early it's evident that Man-Tee like to engage on the outer flanks...they disperse shuttles wickedly. Chirag is smart though, he's gonna shoot straight and down.

Shivani Naik

Oh the Indians were sure that a serve was out that they actually were getting ready to serve. But the chair umpire realises this perhaps and allows for a late challenge, usually not the case. And again a long wait. And this time the Indians are right, the service from Man Wei Chong is indeed out. Well out. It's been a very stop-start opening to the match. Massive wait for this one. The players are just wandering around. 

Sumeeth Reddy and coach Tan Kim Her on the chairs behind Satwik-Chirag as usual for this one. 

An early review by Satwik and there is a long delay for this... the shuttle was called in... and it is barely in. The Indians do have a slender early lead at 5-4. And they get the service right back as Chirag and Sawik hit with a 1-2 with the switch in formation. 

Chirag to serve. Both Indians struggling with the service-return situations on Thursday, let's see how they fare today. Both pairs have their service broken early with clever winners into the backcourt corners. 

Melaka in Malaysia, where Aaron Chia comes from. It's whereMan Wei Chong and Kai Wun Tee hail from too. 

Their Indonesian coach - the legendary IP Herry - the magician.

Shivani Naik

Man Wei Chong and Tee Kai Wun are in decent form too having won the Malaysia Masters a fortnight ago at their home event. They have also tasted success at this venue this year, having won the Indonesia Masters at Istora Senayan in January.

Here's how the last-8 lineup looks like. Potentially the world No 1 awaits the winners of this match.

Screengrab: JioHotstar

Do you think that sooner or later you can go up the rankings?

Satwik: Obviously that is the plan. (smiles) We didn't like that number 27 when we heard about that (Note: They are No 22 now). But it's because of the break we had, unfortunate things and little injuries here and there after Olympics. We didn't play many tournaments, but if you look back, whatever we played, we played almost semifinals (in all of them). That is a good sign. One of the positive things is we are not at our best yet but still, we are able to beat a few good players and trouble the top-level players. So that gives a lot of positive feeling and I feel that the best yet to come. But yeah, really hats off to Chirag. I mean, he has been through so many things these a few months. Last month it wasn't easy. I saw him working day and night, I know he's having pain now also, but he's still not telling me. (smiles)  But still, I mean, really, I mean that's how we cheer up together and we want to do well in the upcoming tournaments as well.

What are the positives you think you can get out from your run at Singapore Open?

Chirag Shetty: We take a lot of positives. To come this far with the number of days we've trained and the weeks, months we've had both professionally and personally, to get back here and to play a semifinal, we never really expected. We always see that as we go deeper into the tournament, we want to go and win the title. But when I look back at the way whatever we have faced over the past couple of months, I think it's it's a really good start.

At Delhi earlier this year, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty were pushed to the limits by Man Wei Chong and Tee Kai Wun. The Indians, who lost in the final last year, eventually won 23-21, 19-21, 21-16 in a 76-minute thriller. After trailing 10-15 in the opening game, the 7th seeds did well to take the lead. But a slow start to the second game eventually hurt them despite closing down from 1-7 down. In the third too, Man-Tee threatened a late fightback from 10-15 to 14-16. But Chirag played the point of the match, defending not once but twice while seated on the court, and arrested the slide. “Happy that we won that rally, it was crucial because they were serving really well, and it wasn’t easy to penetrate their defence today,” Chirag said.

Satwik-Chirag have never lost in their four meetings against Man-Tee of Malaysia. In fact, the first three wins were all in straight games. But earlier this year at the India Open, the Malaysians troubled the Indians in what a closely-fought three-game battle.

Especially if Liu/Tan get into their attacking rhythms here, they could run away with this.

How Satwik-Chirag dismantled world No 1 Goh-Izzuddin at Singapore Open last week

….and, Hulk. Smash.”

Pithy words. Clear instructions. It is not known if Malaysian Tan Kim Her or Pullela Gopichand have ever watched a Marvel movie. But in the aftermath of the Olympics disappointment and with change in coaching personnel, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty were finally told to stop tiptoeing about by their coaching chair, in training and on the court. While Mathias Boe did extremely well to bring in the European defensive sturdiness to their game and equip Satwik-Chirag with a Plan B should the first three strokes of a rally not assert their dominance, coach Tan and Gopichand were pretty clear that the duo needed to live up to their reputation as attacking giants. Tan brought them together circa 2015-16 seeing the very potential of the two-barrelled cannon.

And Gopichand insisted that a full-fledged, no-punches-pulled attack would be the duo’s defining canon. 2025 started roughly with an India Open semifinals defeat to Malaysians Goh Sze Fei and Nur Izuddin, who have gone on to become World No 1. At the halfway stage, even if their rank reads No 27, Satwik-Chirag banished the Malaysians in under 40 minutes on Friday with a destructive 21-17, 21-15 win at the Singapore Open.

It is perhaps Abhinav Bindra’s favourite mantra – ‘seeking perfection on an imperfect day.’ It’s the sort of match where their Indian coaches in Hyderabad won’t hesitate to call the level of their errors throughout the match ‘rubbish’ to Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty’s faces – before gushing about how the denouement wound up being ‘bloody brilliant’. Chirag himself spoke of the pair ‘playing stupid’, before a Satwik service at 19-20 ended up being ‘phenomenal’ and how his own serve was ‘quite good’ at 20-20 in the decider, after an hour of nightmarish serves from them. Coach Tan Kim Her even told them at some point that ‘it’s OK if you lose.’ They never looked like winning, until they did. Out of these far-from-ideal moments in a 68-minute cliffhanger, full of landslides, hatched out a 16-21, 21-18, 22-20 win that put the Indians into the quarterfinals of the Indonesia Open Super 1000 – one of the four biggest Tour events in badminton.

Read more by Shivani Naik here.

Sindhu faltered in the deciding game to go down to world number 8 Pornpawee Chochuwong of Thailand in the second round. Sindhu squandered a 15-11 lead in the decider to lose 22-20, 10-21, 18-21 in a gruelling 78-minute battle. It was a disappointing day for the rest of the Indian contingent, as Sathish Karunakaran and Aadya Variyath, along with the women's doubles pair of Gayatri Gopichand and Treesa Jolly, also bowed out in the second round. While Sathish and Aadya were outclassed 7-21, 12-21 by the sixth-seeded Thai duo of Dechapol Puavaranukroh and Supissara Paewsampran in just 25 minutes, Gayatri and Treesa put up a fight before losing 13-21, 22-24 to Japan's Yuki Fukushima and Mayu Matsumoto in 46 minutes.

(Via PTI) 

"Today felt like one of those days where we just weren't at our best," Satwik told BWF after their hard-fought quarterfinal win. "It wasn't about the strategy being wrong — it was more that we were giving away the points. If you look back, nearly 15 to 20 points came from our own mistakes. They didn't win those points — we handed them over. "In the first game, it was 15-all, and then suddenly it slipped to 21-15. I just felt like we weren't focused enough — like we weren't really there today. But even then, we kept believing, taking it one point at a time. "The coaches kept telling us, ‘Calm down, it's okay even if you lose, just relax.' So we tried to stay calm and composed, to just play our game and see how it goes," he added.

After her superb run last week in Singapore, where she beat An Se Young on her way to the title, Chen Yufei has withdrawm from her quarterfinal today due to an injury. This also means Satwik-Chirag match will start a bit earlier than scheduled, right after the ongoing Women's Doubles match (which could actually be a marathon in itself)

We wish Chen Yu Fei ?? a speedy recovery. ???‍?#BWFWorldTour #IndonesiaOpen2025 pic.twitter.com/B9UXjeQ6OR

— BWF (@bwfmedia) June 6, 2025

Sunday's column by Shivani Naik: Why badminton rankings don’t matter but titles do

What was PV Sindhu ranked when she won silver at Rio Olympics? It somehow assumes irrelevance when you register that she beat Wang Yihan, Tai Tzu-ying and Nozomi Okuhara to make finals. That she never reached World No 1 while winning 2 Olympic medals and 5 World Championship medals including a World title, will remain confounding always. But it doesn’t blot her legacy one bit. That, India’s most recent World No 1s Kidambi Srikanth and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty are still searching for their first Olympic medal and second Worlds podium is as boggling. They of course reached World No 1 by winning several Tour titles, and will forever hold that citation of sitting atop the global charts. But as salves go, the top rank might not quite make up for a medal, a keepsake, a high point. Sure, something in the wind learnt their names, but they can’t quite say things were never quite the same. This week, Satwik-Chirag beat the World No 1s while themselves being ranked No 27. For the memories imprinted – it’s special because they have had a torrid six months past – their march into the Singapore semis will be remembered more starkly than how the rank dipped to 27.

And welcome to our continued live coverage of Indian badminton. As was the case last week, the last standing Indian contenders at the Indonesia Open Super 1000 are Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty in men's doubles. On a comeback trail after a spell out on the sidelines since All England last year, SatChi are eyeing back-to-back semifinals. 

Stay tuned for all the live updates. The match is on Court 2, live-streamed on JioHotstar and will start after the current women's doubles quarterfinal.