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Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty faced a loss against China’s Liang Wei Keng and Wang Chang. Coach Tan Kim Her discusses errors and future hopes.
Satwik-Chirag in action (Picture credit: BAI)
India’s men’s doubles coach Tan Kim Her has said that repeated errors from Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty kept boosting China’s Liang Wei Keng and Wang Chang’s confidence, and they inflicted a 21-18, 21-9 defeat on the home favourites.
Satwik and Chirag matched the Chinese pair point for point in a fiercely contested opening game, with the scores tied from 4-all through to 10-all before the Indians took a one-point lead into the interval.
Satwik and Chirag opened up a 15-12 lead and then won a fast-paced flat exchange to move 16-14 ahead. But a wide shot from the former helped the Chinese draw level at 18-all, before a flurry of errors from the Indians allowed their opponents to close out the opening game.
“Satwik has just recovered from injury, so I think he and Chirag played well. We were good tactically and played well throughout the first game, but a few small errors in our receiving towards the end gave the Chinese players confidence,” coach Tan said while speaking to News18 Sports after the match.
The Indians faded in the second game, slipping to 4-9 before Wang and Liang took an 11-5 lead into the interval. The Chinese pair stretched their advantage to 15-7 and Satwik’s shot into the net made it 17-9.
The Chinese were fired up while the Indians’ hopes wavered as Satwik’s lift went into the net.
Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik were once regarded as Satwik-Chirag’s biggest nemeses on the circuit. But Liang and Wang have taken over that mantle, winning 10 of their 14 meetings against the Indian pair.
Have Liang and Wang identified any particular weakness of Satwik-Chirag that has helped them dominate the latter?
“We have played them many times and beaten them a few times, but I think we have lost more than we have won. As I said, it depends on how you handle the pressure on the day,” the coach said.
“On Friday, the Chinese pair handled it very well. If they had lost the first game, it could have been a different story. But after winning the first game, they played more freely and with less pressure,” Tan added.
He said that Satwik-Chirag made a few errors while trying to sustain rallies, permitting the Chinese pair to keep the shuttle in play even when they appeared to have won the point.
“They played with a lot of confidence today. When we have beaten them in the past, our service and receive were good on those days, which gave us a good chance,” the coach said.
“Today, however, our receiving let us down. We didn’t handle it well and that gave them a slight advantage,” Tan added.
Would he sit down with Satwik-Chirag and discuss how they can handle pressure better?
“I don’t want to put too much pressure on them. As I told them, sometimes we win and sometimes we lose. They have also been out for quite some time, for more than a month, so I think their return itself is a positive,” the coach said.
Tan expressed confidence that Satwik-Chirag would perform well at the China Masters, their final tournament before the Asian Games, thus confirming their participation in the event that will begin on September 1.
Notably, Satwik-Chirag are defending champions at the Asian Games.
Key Questions Answered
Ask News18Coach Tan Kim Her expressed confidence that Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty would perform well at the China Masters, their final tournament before the Asian Games, where they are defending champions.
Ask News18August 22, 2026, 07:00 IST
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