Chirag helped me get back on track when I was low: Satwik

This was at the BWF China Masters last month, the only tournament that Satwik and Chirag Shetty have competed in since their quarter-final exit in Paris. India’s top doubles pair plan to turn up for the Malaysia Open in less than a month’s time, Satwik said, after having started working with Malaysian coach Tan Kim Her in Hyderabad and giving the Syed Modi tournament in Lucknow a miss.

That was down to “some niggles for both of us”, said Satwik. It’s something the 24-year-old has been increasingly grappling with over the last few months, which has kept the Sat-Chi combo away from the tour. Satwik has been hampered by “niggles all over the body”, especially dealing with pain in the shoulder and the right knee that has bothered him since 2021. He is currently pain free, but has never really been fully pain free through an entire season. It’s frustrating, Satwik said, because he has consulted multiple doctors who have all concurred that it doesn’t necessitate surgery.

“If I knew surgery would fix it, I would’ve done it right after the Olympics. The issue is not so big, yet not so small. That’s the worrying part,” Satwik said on the sidelines of the GoSports Annual Awards in the city. “I feel comfortable for the first six months, but then I experience that little pain again. I’ve been managing playing with that pain.”

Doctors have advised him the best way to avoid that pain is to focus much more on rest and rehab. Plying on a relentless BWF tour that gives little room for a breather, that is nearly impossible. “We haven’t played 3-4 tournaments, and we are out of top five (the former world No.1 pair is now 9th),” Satwik said. “There are a lot of fines as well if you don’t play. Players are not playing with their heart, to be honest. They are just coming and showing their face, for the non-major tournaments. It’s not like before, where players gave their 100%. Now they’re like, ‘theek hai, haar gaye toh bhi chalega’.”

The defeat in Paris, of the Asian Games gold medallists on whom medal hopes were high, though did hurt. And it continues to. “It was a pain deep inside that we couldn’t do it for India. I haven’t recovered yet. It’s still there, and I think it will remain. I took that defeat very personally,” Satwik said.

He didn’t go home to Amalapuram for quite a while, opting to stay put at the Gopichand academy in Hyderabad. “My family was like, kya ho jayega isko. My parents told me, ‘tu pehle theek hoja, game is secondary’. I was in that state of mind, and they could see that I wasn’t okay,” Satwik said.

The nagging physical issues accompanying that state of mind also didn’t help. “That was even more disturbing. Mentally I wasn’t in a good state, and when I was stepping on court the niggles would bother me.”

The support system around him gradually helped in the recovery, at least of the mind. That included Pullela Gopichand, Manu Attri and Sumeeth Reddy who played a stop-gap coaching role for the pair and, of course, his trusted partner.

“Chirag helped me get back on track. He was there in the academy all the time. We planned things together, because we didn’t even have a coach. So even that was disturbing because we were going on court but we didn’t know what to do! Later, Gopi sir and the others helped us and we had a programme.”

That coaching void, created by the departure of Mathias Boe, has now been filled, with Malaysian coach Tan reuniting with the pair he has been credited in bringing together. Satwik said they were looking forward to this reunion and the nearly month-long preparation phase before their next tournament.

“When you’re playing at this high level, you need someone to guide you and make sure that you’re on the right track. When Boe was there, we would usually follow his plan, and it was pretty clear what I was doing and what Chirag was doing. Now with coach Tan, he will have his plans and we both will follow it. It helps when we’re all on the same page while playing.”

And on the same wavelength off the court as well. In that regard the experienced Malaysian coach, who has been with the Indian setup earlier, and Sat-Chi fit right in. Satwik credits Tan for urging him to look at life beyond the sport.

“One thing I’ve observed is that you must have a good rapport with the coach. Even with Boe, we treated him as a brother. Whenever he gave suggestions outside badminton, like what to do in life, we would listen to that. Even coach Tan told us those things. Like when I started out, I was more a be-in-room kind of guy. He suggested me to go out and explore the city. Those things also help.”