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Journalism of Courage
In a blazing show of power-hitting combined with canny placement, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty scored their first victory over China’s Liang Wei Keng-Wang Chang in three meetings, to win the Korea Open semifinals. The Indians will play top ranked Fajar Alfian and Muhamad Rian Ardianto in the final – their fourth of the year after the Swiss Open, Asian Championships and Indonesia Open, all of which they have won. The World No 3 Indians are on a 9-match win streak, and are looking to win back to back titles at Yeosu, Korea after the Super 1000 at Jakarta.
While all the talk surrounds how hard the Indians hit – and hit very hard they do – Saturday was all about inciting anarchy in Chinese ranks hitting down the middle with cross strokes. The Chinese have 27 wins from 34 matches this year including titles at Thailand and India Open, but had few answers to the Indian attack on the day. The previous two matches at the All England Round 2 and Malaysian semifinals had gone to three sets but the Indians were absolutely dominant in their 21-15, 24-22 win in 40 minutes.
“It had been a close match at All England too (21-19 in the third), but Chirag-Satwik are a much improved pairing now, more matured,” said Pullela Gopichand who was in the coach’s chair on the day. “They are playing to each other’s strengths and hitting harder than anyone else,” he added.
The opening set, set the tone for the victory as the Indians broke away at 11-8 to earn themselves a 15-9 lead from which the Chinese never recovered. Chirag was on a roll with interceptions. “Twice he hit a backhand crosscut block from the net which I haven’t seen anyone hit,” Gopichand gushed.
There is the anticipation and he rushes quickly, but opponents are finding it tough to break through the Indians because Shetty is hitting hard too with powerful steep smashes without too much of a backlift or follow through. And if they go over Shetty, there is Satwik looming there with his own big attack. “The attack was outrageous and Indians were just stronger. The way they were playing they deserved to win with an even bigger margin,” Gopichand added.
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After Indians opened up a 19-11 lead and yet another Shetty interception gave them the opener at 21-15, the Chinese seemed to be going down the same path in the second with the margin mirroring the 11-8 scoreline. Here Satwik would take over with his cross winners. However, the Chinese regrouped after 14-9 with Liang getting his jump smashes in to push the Indians back, and away from the net from where Shetty was routing the Chinese defense.
Pegged back, the Chinese would come within a point of the Indians at 17-16 with Liang pouncing on everything at the net. The Indian serve would come under pressure, as both Chirag and Satwik ended up serving short to fritter match points. The Chinese were hot in pursuit but couldn’t quite create a set point of their own to sniff a decider. A flick serve later, Satwik finally made good of the fourth match point, when his push caught a net cord and tumbled over.
Good finals record
Semifinals might have proven to be hurdles for the Indians, but they are absolute monsters when it comes to finals. They haven’t lost a final on the Tour in many years. Satwik-Chirag go into Sunday in Korea with a 2-2 head to head against Alfian-Ardianto, but have won the last two times, including quarterfinals at Indonesia during their title run. The Indonesians play the flat game at high pace, but the Indian attack has been unstoppable these last few months.
