India’s best shot at a medal? Neeraj Chopra, hands down, for most. What about second-best?
There is a pair, who triumphed at the 2022 Commonwealth Games, and has not dropped out of the top-three in the world rankings this year. They were No. 1 twice (currently rank 3), made it to four finals and managed two titles.
Men’s badminton doubles pair Satwiksairaj Rankireddy, 23, and Chirag Shetty, 27, are the reigning Asian Games gold medallists―the first Indian pair to do so. With the Thailand Open and the French Open Super 750 trophies under their belt, the young pair has an impressive 23-6 win-loss record in 2024. If everything goes as planned (touchwood!), they could very well be the first Indian male shuttlers on the Olympic podium.
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Saina Nehwal, the first Indian badminton medallist, said Satwik and Chirag, or Sat-Chi as they are called, stand a 95 per cent chance of winning a medal in Paris. The Indian pair may even claim gold, she said. “The only thing [to see] is how they fare against the top pair,” she told the Hindustan Times. “But, there is no need for much tension about them.”
Sat-Chi’s feats in recent times do substantiate Nehwal’s confidence. Their bronze at the 2022 World Championships was India’s first medal in the competition. It came on the heels of the Commonwealth gold. The duo also played a crucial role in India’s successful Thomas Cup campaign in 2022.
The next year was also an illustrious one as they went on to win the Swiss Open, the World Super 1000, the Korean Open and the Asian championships.
Satwik and Chirag will be hell-bent on not yielding an inch in Paris, after a narrow elimination in the group stage in Tokyo―there was a three-way tie, settled by head-to-head record.
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This time, Satwik and Chirag are one of the four seeded teams. They cannot complain about their group fixtures, having drawn the world No. 7 pair of Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Ardianto (Indonesia), along with a 31-ranked German pair and 43-ranked French pair. Alfian and Ardianto have not got the better of them since 2018. And, the German and French pair have never defeated them.
But, things could get tricky from the quarterfinals onwards as a random draw decides the fixtures. The duo may have to take on the other seeded teams, Liang Weikeng and Wang Chang of China (1), Kim Astrup and Anders Skaarup Rasmussen of Denmark (2) and Kang Ming-hyuk and Seo Seung-jae of South Korea (4). While the Danish pair have a 6-2 record against them, the Indians had won the only meeting in 2024. The Chinese pair not only enjoys a 5-1 record, but also beat them in May.
However, under coach Mathias Boe, Satwik and Chirag have come a long way. Also their French Open title this year was won at the La Chapelle Arena―the venue for Olympic badminton.
With age, experience and form on their side, it is time for them to deliver a killer smash. Fingers crossed.