Paris: Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty said they felt a sense of redemption after securing India’s first medal at the BWF World Championships by defeating Malaysia’s two-time Olympic medallists Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik in the quarterfinals.
The world No. 3 pair defeated the Malaysians in straight games, 21-12, 21-19, in 43 minutes to seal their second medal at the prestigious World Championships.
The Indian pair lost to the same opponents on the same court in the Paris Olympics, missing out on their maiden quadrennial accolade last year.
“Feeling really good, I think. It was a rematch of sorts from the Olympics. And I think we finally got some redemption. It was the same court, same arena,” Shetty said after the match.
“A year back exactly. Olympics and now World Championships. It’s always a pleasure playing against them. We’ve always had some really tough battles at the biggest of events. And really happy we could win today,” he added.
Rankireddy also expressed satisfaction with their performance to book the last four berth.
“In the second game, when we were leading, I was thinking for sure we’ll not win this much easy. They will come back stronger for sure. Because we have played many times,” he said.
“When we won the stride games, it went very close, neck to neck. And I was telling myself, don’t hurry for the point. And still I have a belief we are under control. No need to panic. Because we only gave a few points there. They were under pressure, I sensed that. So as I said before, we just want to play our A game.
“And see where we’ll end up. And that’s what we are doing from the first match. Just focusing on ourselves, not on the opponents. And really happy with the way we played today.”
Asked about their approach against 11th seeds Chen Bo Yang and Liu Yi of China in the semifinal on Saturday, Shetty said they will treat it like any other match in the tournament.
“Just like any other match that we played in this tournament. Take it one match at a time. They are a good, formidable pair. We played against them before. Really looking forward to tomorrow,” he said.
On Friday, India’s hope of multiple medals suffered a setback when PV Sindhu and the mixed doubles pair of Tanisha Crasto and Dhruv Kapila bowed out in the quarterfinals.
Sindhu’s hopes of bagging a historic sixth BWF World Championships medal came to an end with a 14-21, 21-13, 16-21 defeat against Indonesian 9th seed Putri Kusuma Wardani.
Meanwhile, the Indian duo, aiming to secure the nation’s first-ever medal in the event, fell short against Malaysia’s World No. 4 pair Chen Tang Jie and Toh Ee Wei, suffering a 15-21, 13-21 defeat in just 37 minutes.
(IANS)
