After failing to grab set points, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty go down in quarters

Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty will rue the missed opportunity of a 20-15 opening set lead against Indonesian Marcus Gideon and Kevin Sukamuljo, that cost them a handy lead and eventually the match in the quarters against the World No 1s.
It was a bilge of nervy errors that saw the Indians unable to close out when ahead and the 24-22, 21-17 loss followed in the same vein after this punch to the gut. Perhaps the 10 straight losses on the bounce are too daunting to believe that they were in command at that position against the shaky Minions.

The communication between the two jarred and despite gallant retrieving in really long rallies and some hectic rotations, the Indians just could not close out after holding 5 full set points. The shuttle once literally got stuck into Shetty’s racquet gutting and the strings unravelled another time for Satwik. But it was the knotted nerves in their stomach that handed them a loss that’ll haunt for a long time to come.
The Minions are World No 1 for a reason. But in what were very clever diced lifts that earned the Indians time before the shuttle came back, the Indonesians had been put under the pump. Satwik has evolved at the net, and Chirag can be a force to reckon from the back. It fetched them a 20-15 lead. That last point was a different matter altogether.
This wasn’t luck betraying them. But a fiendishly asserted pluck that was missing on the day, and which the two will need to summon in favourable situations that they’ve earned the hard way. At 17-16, it was a one point game, but the Indians looked far too desolate from the first set reversal. The sum total of two good, very brainy games on the day just wasn’t good enough.