NEW DELHI: Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty are in a good space right now, mentally and physically. A World Championships bronze in August backed by successive finals at Hong Kong Open and China Masters this month – their first title clashes in 16 months – has put them at ease.
Physically too they were able to push their bodies, playing in the business end of three tournaments in four weeks without a niggle or injury, after fitness issues had plagued them for more than a year.
“After the Olympics, I had many injuries. I have a shoulder problem which has been there for the past 6-7 years. It is a recurring issue. I have to manage with it. Also, many a time I would have sudden pain (in other parts of the body). I wasn’t in a position to play. There were a few niggles too,” Rankireddy, 25, told HT.
Rankireddy’s injuries meant that the ace Indian combine played only one tournament in the last five months of 2024 – China Masters. Not 100%, the world No.6 pair played a couple of tournaments in January before Rankireddy lost his father. It put the brakes on their comeback for a month.
When they returned, it was Shetty’s turn to endure pain as the 28-year-old was hit with spasmodic back pain. “I have had back issues for a very long time. But at the All England it recurred and was quite bad. It started in the first round itself. But I played and finished the match, then tried again the next day, but I just wasn’t able to bend,” Shetty, whose problem forced the pair to retire from the second round at All England, told HT.
Tan Kim Her, who had returned to India to coach the duo after five years, was taken aback by the string of injuries. The Malaysian realised that before coaching them, he had to manage their bodies and workload. Without that he could not take Rankireddy and Shetty back to the top step of the podium.
Tan, who had formed the pair against their wishes a decade back, sat them down with their trainer and strength and conditioning coach and devised a plan on how to manage their workload so that they don’t get injured frequently.
The 53-year-old made the former world No.1 combine take a break from the tour for two months and changed their training schedule. He couldn’t take risks with Indian badminton’s best bet going into any tournament.
“When Tan returned, it took him time to understand what’s happening with us and what we were doing earlier. With (former coach) Mathias (Boe), our sessions were always short but very intense. Tan likes to spend more time on court. It took us and also him time to adjust. We talked to him and our trainer after which he adjusted our scheduling,” said Rankireddy.
There were quite a few tweaks. Tan redesigned their training programme in a manner that he wasn’t pushing Rankireddy and Shetty’s boundaries. The primary focus was to get them in proper shape. Tan ensured that his wards did not play more than two successive tournaments. Extra emphasis was laid on monitoring their bodies rather than on their game.
“It’s trial and error. You’ve been in the sport for so long that you know what works for you and what doesn’t. You can’t really avoid being injured. While some are freak accidents, others can be because of loading,” said Shetty.
“It’s a call which you take keeping in mind the opinion of our strength and conditioning coach, our coach, our bodies, physios and then figuring out what works best for you. That’s what we’ve been doing. I can’t think of any athlete who has never been injured, no matter how careful he is. It’s just that you minimise the number of injuries as much as possible by taking care of your body, doing all the recovery work.”
Taking out time to let their bodies heal came at a cost. A regular in top-10, Rankireddy and Shetty had dropped to world No.27 in May, their worst ranking since 2018. Dropping out of the top 32 would’ve meant they wouldn’t have been able to qualify for Super 1000, Super 750 and other elite events.
“We were just playing to protect our ranking. It wasn’t like we were playing to win or something like that. But May onwards, I felt that we were on the right track. We started focusing on badminton rather than focusing on injuries,” said Rankireddy.
With their bodies in slightly better shape, and also out of necessity, they decided to return to the tour. Despite not being 100% they still managed to reach the semis of the Singapore Open and China Open in June and July, beating some top pairs. Significantly, they re-entered the top 10 in the world in July, and have not looked back since.
“Injuries have definitely taken a toll. But it’s a part and parcel of an athlete’s life. You have to deal with it, work towards it and manage your bodies. That’s what we did. I am happy that we are in a much better space, physically and mentally now,” said Shetty.
“Right now, our aim is to go deep into tournaments. Once we’re able to do that, we will keep reducing the number of tournaments that we participate in like we did in the previous years. By year end, we hope to enter the top 5 and go as high as possible.”
It took a while but the Asian Games champions slowly started finding their rhythm. They started gaining form and it culminated in Paris with them becoming the only Indian pair to win two World Championships medals, having also claimed a bronze in 2022.
“The World Championships gave us a lot of confidence. Winning against some top pairs gave us a lot of belief that we are right up there, which we carried into the next two tournaments,” said Rankireddy.
The pair is now looking to end its 16-month title drought. And they are targeting the year-ending $3 million BWF World Tour Finals, where only one Indian has won a title – PV Sindhu in 2018.