Chirag pines for coach to take doubles team to greater heights

Hyderabad: The dependable Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy, who are ranked 12th in the World, have been India’s most successful doubles players in recent times. They have been on the rise. They gave hope when they won the Thailand Open early this year but after that their progress has been hindered in many ways. If […]

Hyderabad: The dependable Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy, who are ranked 12th in the World, have been India’s most successful doubles players in recent times.

They have been on the rise. They gave hope when they won the Thailand Open early this year but after that their progress has been hindered in many ways. If the Covid-19 and the pandemic deprived them of a good number of tournaments, the absence of a specialist double coach has virtually put their plans on hold. It was a moment of joy and happiness when the top Netherlands doubles player/coach Mathias Boe was part of the coaching programme for the Tokyo Olympics. Both Chirag and Satwik benefited hugely in his training programmes and inputs.

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But ever since his term was over after the Tokyo Olympics, the ace Indian doubles pair has been left without a specialist coach. It is a concern as Chirag Shetty and Satwik are considered a good bet for the 2024 Paris Olympics. But prior to that quadrennial event, it is the next year’s Asian Games that could be very important for the Indian doubles pair. A good performance against the strong Chinese, Indonesians or the Japanese would be the ideal preparations for the Olympics.

Chirag, who is presently in Bali to play in the Super 750 Indonesian Masters, said that they certainly need a coach. “We don’t have a coach right now even in our practice sessions to correct our game and teach us new strokes. We would like to have a new specialist coach as early as possible,” said the 24-year-old.

Chirag further added that it would have been a different story if Boe had continued as Indian doubles coach after the Tokyo Olympics. “He gave a new dimension to our game like teaching different styles of serves and also taking the shuttle as early as possible. Our mindset changed. After he came, we were more confident about our game. I became much stronger on my backcourt,” he said.

The doubles player said a specialist coach is necessary. “If we need to play consistently, we need to have a specialist coach. The Chinese, Japanese or Indonesians have that advantage. Sometimes in big matches, a coach can be very useful. In the Thomas Cup, we beat a Chinese pair. Even in the French Open we lost a close game in the quarterfinals to Mys Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik of Malaysia, the Tokyo Games Olympics bronze medallists. We were leading but if we had a specialist coach on the court, it would have helped us as he would have perhaps observed a particular movement and devised a strategy. But we continued to play the same pattern and a specialist coach would have made the difference with his inputs.”

Chirag said that they started strongly this year but because of the pandemic all their plans went upside down. “This year we could play in only seven tournaments instead of the 16 or 17 tournaments. We have two more tournaments and we hope to do well to qualify for the World Tour final,” he said. The top eight play in this year-end tournament.

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