Hong Kong Open badminton: Satwik-Chirag fend off generation-leaping Malaysians Arif-Yap who had Aaron Chia in coaching chair

India’s own Malaysian, coach Tan Kim Her, was around to calm the Indians down and remind them that they have the heavy arsenal, but might not need to pull it all out, for next week’s China Masters is the big one in September. But Arif and Yap are no mugs. Something of a cross between Minions, laced with attacking intent, and Chia himself, who brings the brains to their offensive plays, the new Malaysians can be a handful. Chia was clearly at hand to tell them how to harangue the Indians, because he’s historically been good at it, though this World Championship saw Satwik-Chirag counter him clinically.

The tournament might be a Super 500, but it’s where most countries are testing and tweaking their newly launched pairs for the next Olympic cycle. Especially the Malaysians and Taiwanese, who promise to make life difficult for all top pairings. Yap-Arif are thus the leaping generation, and went about targeting the Indian vulnerabilities – body defense on shots coming at their ribs, the seeds of which are those nightmarish Chia racquet-angles.

Quarterfinals action sees Arif/Yap 🇲🇾 and Rankireddy/Shetty 🇮🇳 collide. #BWFWorldTour #HongKongOpen2025 pic.twitter.com/4I1g8tLxdg

— BWF (@bwfmedia) September 12, 2025

Both Chirag and Satwik were alternately targeted, but always in a flurry. This would comprise of pushing them back with one shuttle to the back court, forcing out lifts from them, and then repeatedly pinging their torsos with some intense smashing into the body. It’s not a bad plan, but to assume either Satwik or Chirag can be peppered was optimistic. It’s so early-2024. Resultantly, while they copped the attack, their defenses held strong, the lifts weren’t smotherable, and they neatly shifted to their own attacking gears. Once there, the Malaysians were hapless witnesses to their own fading off.

The holding off in the siege needed effort, but like many pairings have discovered this last year, Satwik-Chirag are not one-dimensional attacking robots. The Malaysian plans came undone when they stopped hitting down the middle and went for the flanks. Even the lines where the drift watched their shuttle careen off course. Even there, it was because Satwik was ready to guard the periphery.

Satwik-Chirag’s next opponents at Hong Kong Open 2025 are Taiwanese Chen-Lin. (BWF/BadmintonPhoto)

However, it is Chirag who is always the target of Malaysian offensives. They boxed him in with their attacks, but he used his agility to deflect the angles and repeatedly punished them, returning the cross attack with interest. Roving the back court, he found the short smash tweaks to find gaps. A serve of his in the second, when the Indians had a chance to close out, was deemed an error as the Malaysian moved out of the way and let it fall. But he shrugged it off and ensured that the decider gave the opponents no respite, and not a sniff of the lead.

The young Malaysian pairing left the court chuckling with the two coaches at some of their plans coming apart. It’s probably the biggest takeaway from how Malaysians and Indonesians play – keep the fiendish fun of doubles alive, no matter what.

Satwik-Chirag’s next opponents are Taiwanese Chen Cheng Kuan and Lin Bing-Wei. They are ranked 99, while the Indians are No 9. But upstarts abound, and it helps to know that those two countries – Malaysia and Taiwan – have the best doubles programs set in motion for the coming years.