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| Focus on Satwik-Chirag as home shuttlers look to dazzle at India Open | | |  Agencies
NEW DELHI, Jan 15: Expectations will be high when Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty spearhead the home challenge at the India Open super 750 badminton tournament beginning here on Tuesday, hoping to annex their first silverware of the new season.
With six titles in 2023, Satwik and Chirag have been a cut above the rest of the Indians, and the runner-up finish at the Malaysia super 1000 has only spiced things up as the Indian shuttlers look to deliver at home. The BAI flagship tournament, which was upgraded to super 750 in 2023, proved a dampener for home shuttlers last season when none of the Indians could cross the second round.
In the 2022 edition, Satwik-Chirag and Lakshya Sen stood on the podium with the men's doubles and men's singles crown and the home shuttlers will hope to once again live up to the expectations and prove that last year was an aberration.
Satwik and Chirag have the wherewithal to go the distance this time as the duo will be charged up after coming marginally short in the final in Kuala Lumpur on Sunday.
"We want to do well in our home country next week, so we don't want to relax with this, we are more hungry and next week we want to do well in front of our home crowd," Satwik said on Sunday.
Second seeds Satwik and Chirag, who were forced to pull out ahead of the second round last year due to an injury suffered by the former, will face world No. 25 Fang-Jen Lee and Fang-Chih Lee of Taipei in their opening round.
Chirag added: "We are not done yet. India Open is coming up next week and we want to go one better." While Satwik-Chirag will be one of the frontrunners for the title, all eyes will also be on HS Prannoy, Lakshya Sen, and Kidambi Srikanth in men's singles, especially in the absence of two-time Olympic medallist P V Sindhu, who is nursing a knee injury.
Having fared poorly in Malaysia, world No. 8 Prannoy and Lakshya will look to find their rhythm quickly, while Srikanth must have got some confidence back following his win over Jonatan Christie in the opening round last week.
Prannoy and Sen will look for a good start, having suffered first-round exits in Kuala Lumpur, when they open against Chinese Taipei's Chou Tien Chen and Priyanshu Rajawat respectively.
"India Open has always been special. Since 2012, I have been playing in this tournament and I have a lot of good memories. Having a 750 stature is big for Indian badminton as fans can now see top players perform closely. So there is a lot of hunger to go out there and win this tournament," said Prannoy, who won the world championships and Asian Games bronze medals in 2023.
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