Sixth seeded Indonesians Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Shohibul Fikri kept the shuttle low assiduously and had their reward, as Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty were thrown off track, losing 21-10, 23-21 in the quarterfinals of the Malaysia Open on Friday.
It would be considered a scratchy win for the Indonesians, never mind the nature of the score, where they went 5-0 ahead in quick time, as the third seeded Indians struggled to deal with the low serves and the fast front court exchanges Alfian-Fikri ace. While the opener was lost in momentum, as Indians could never recover frim trailing 4-13, it was in the second that the Indians frittered a 17-13 lead while trying to push a decider.
Chirag’s swivel serve resurfaced and the Indian duo admitted the conditions had gotten too windy on Friday, hampering shuttle control. On top of which the Indonesians maintained a flat, compact game where the shuttle was continuously and awkwardly coming at the tall Indians’ necks. By the time Chirag had figured out a way to parry body attacks deftly, the Indians had allowed Alfian-Fikri a whiff of a comeback in Set 2. The Indonesians when peppered with smashing flurries themselves, were defending well (ugly, but gamely) and reached their first match point with a fortuitous net chord tipple.
The Indians were hurried and the loss of the lead put them under pressure as they couldn’t ward off a third match point against the Indonesian scratch pair who both play front-court, and have scalped Top 3 names three times out six.
Chirag admitted to BWF that the Indians accumulated too many errors. “Didn’t start off that well in the first set. Lot of Mistakes. But fougt back in the second. Had a sizeable lead but we didn’t really convert. All credit to them too. They played a very furious game, we knew that, we couldn’t capitalise,” he said.
Satwik reckoned they failed to strike rhythm. “We started quite well. Rallies were going on. 2-3 points here and there. When we got a chance to attack we did some easy mistakes in first 4 shots so they got to 5-0. If it was 1-2, we could’ve got that rhythm. But once it was 5-0, then again 7-1. Here and there. But it was on our court. We didn’t play accurate. Couldn’t keep discipline. Second game we could stay disciplined, but last phase they were experienced in 1,2,3,4 shots,” he ceded.
Drifty conditions might’ve spoiled their plans at Malaysia, but Satwik said he was looking forward to next week at India Open. “Different stadium. Different atmosphere. There won’t be any drift. There’ll be heaters this time because it’s very cold in Delhi. 0 or 5 degrees. New stadium. That’s where I started playing my first Nationals. So really excited for that,” he said.
© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd
