Satwik-Chirag’s back-to-back finals: The good, the bad and the glee of their return; ‘Still hunting for a title…All about confidence’

But the search for their 10th BWF World Tour title continues, after last winning Thailand Open Super 750 in May 2024.

Here’s the good, the bad and the glee after last two months:

The Good

Winning a second World Championships bronze, beating former nemeses Aaron-Soh twice, and stringing together two good weeks with a block of 10 matches, 8 wins at Hong Kong and China, as well as the run to semis at Paris, means the Indians are there and nearly thereabouts.

“I think we played some really good badminton over the past two weeks,” Chirag told BWF.

The start in the final was especially good and the Indians even had a workable plan against the Koreans who have accumulated 1 lakh 13 thousand points, more than any badminton player in World Tour era. Seo-Kim are over 20,000 ahead of the next best, and have 6 titles from 9 tournaments in 2025. But no one will doubt the Indians had a plan going.

Satwik explained to BWF: “As Chirag said, when going into the match, we thought of playing some good badminton.

“Obviously, they won’t give any easy points, they will play some extraordinary strokes and their defense is obviously so good. And we were prepared for all those things and we had a plan. We maintained it till first half, I would say like 15-8, 14-8 something.”

The Bad

Confidence is not at crisis-levels, but it’s not nearly restored either. And you suspect it will return only after the title has been secured for a pairing that between May of 2019 and July of 2023 lost just one of 10 finals including Thomas Cup, Asian Championship and Asian Games.

So coming up short isn’t getting cured till the title is won. “Credit to them, they came up with some really good badminton as well. But we stuck there till the very end. A few lucky points here and there, and it turned away. But yeah, overall, happy with the way we played. But yeah, still hunting for the title,” Chirag explained to BWF.

It’s why despite two good weeks Satwik reckoned that confidence remained an issue, and impacted crucial points like mistakes on Point 20 and 21 after being 19-19 in the opener.

“From 15-8, they came up with a few lucky points here and there. Then obviously, that confidence can help them show (flex) their attitude. They were pretty much confident when it was 19 or something like that.

So I think it’s a matter of just time. I felt like we are right up there. It’s just a matter of one point here and there,” he said.

Winning that first set, where their lead was overturned wasn’t very pleasant. “It could have been a different scenario. If we won the first game, I think it would have been definitely in the straight games. I mean, it’s all about confidence and really happy the way we are playing and good to be back on the back-to-back podium,” Satwik said.

Chirag too said, “At 14-8, we probably could have been a little more steadier.” Mental sturdiness when the tables start getting turned is a goal.

The Glee

These results raise hopes for the future. While Satwik-Chirag’s game is very clearly far more well rounded than end of 2023 when they started copping a few finals losses that merged into the Olympic heartbreak, there are a bunch of demons the Indians have slayed.

For one, they are not totally flummoxed by service receiving situations. And for another, some pairings that thought they held an upper hand over them, have been defeated – twice. Aaron-Soh and Liang-Wang notably, but also Xie-Ren at China.

It has effectively meant they are not unduly perturbed by left-right combinations as they used to be once.

In the last two weeks, they played 8 leftie-righties, out of 10. Defeated 7. Satwik told BWF, “Yeah, I mean, obviously, we don’t have anyone leftie to practice against, back in India. So it’s obviously, suddenly, if you come to the tournament, it suddenly feels different. But in the last week, we played leftie-rightie, leftie-rightie until the semifinals. And again, here also, we played leftie-rightie, leftie-rightie. Almost five matches there, five matches here, I think four here. So I think, yeah, it just matters. It gets a little difficult in tournaments. Suddenly, if you come up and play leftie-rightie to adjust to the conditions…. But now, right now, we are used to it.” One problem solved, a bunch more to go.