Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty Break Silence After Shock First-Round Exit From Asian Games 2026

Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty suffered a shock first-round exit at the Asian Games 2026.© IANS

Indian men's doubles badminton ace Satwiksairaj Rankireddy feels he and his partner Chirag Shetty gave away the tie in the second game after taking the lead as he emphasises on the need to work on the mental aspect following the defending champions' shock opening round exit from the Asian Games in Japan on Friday. The World Ranked fifth were eliminated by Thailand's Pakkapon Teeraratsakul and Peeratchai Sukphun 12-21 21-19 21-14 in a one-hour-eight-minute in the opening round. "Quite patchy. I think first game we played really good. We know these situations will happen. It will get tense because it will be tricky because we are being playing continuously in the team event, and we are here last night till 12 o'clock, and right away we are playing one of the good matches. So it's not going to be easy, but we prepared," a disappointed Satwik said.

Asked what part of the game they need to work upon, he said: "It's the mental part. Whenever we are mentally free, I think no one can beat us. But when we are stuck anywhere, we give opponents a chance to beat us.

"So it's a process for us. We keep learning, learning, learning. It happens, but we'll go back and prepare on the mental (aspect)."

He said there was as such no pressure of being the title holders here and the need to of the hour is to figure out what went wrong.

"There was no pressure for us. It's every day, the same matches, same players. But it's how you mentally prepare for the tournament. If you play (BWF) 750, Super 1000, the same players are playing, but it's just how you prepare before coming into the games.

"It's kind of one of the best experience for us here. I take it as a positive because these things are happening for us. It's time for us to figure it out, do something whenever we want to play at the bigger stages. We have proved that we can play, but if you are falling down, there is a fall down continuously. There is no middle where we can stop it," Satwik said.

Satwik also gave credit to their opponents for forging a valiant comeback in the contest.

"Kudos to them. They kept pressuring us. They kept poking us. I think we couldn't handle it in the crucial parts. I think in the (middle of the) second game, we could have had a different scenario. They played a little bit more free than us. I felt that's the only difference," he observed.

"Throughout the three games, they played the same rhythm, but I think it's us who gave them the chance to come into the game and give confidence to them. We were high, we were low, we are high, low. I think that was the difference."

Satwik's partner Chirag feels they were at their best on Friday and could have played a bit smarter.

"We were not up to the mark. Started off well, but second and third game we did not play the right game, and they caught us.

"We knew that they would play a lot of crosses and everything. We could have stepped it up a bit and played a little calmer. Credit to them; they didn't let us come close after that. But yeah, we could have been a little smarter," he said.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

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