Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty pull out of India Open to prepare for Olympic qualification
Indian men’s doubles duo of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty has decided to withdraw from the upcoming India Open badminton tournament to prepare for Olympics qualification. The India Open will be played from March 26 while the Olympic qualification period will start from April 29.
With an aim of getting fully fit and achieve top form, the Indian doubles pair has withdrawn from the upcoming BWF event so that they can prepare well for the Olympic qualifiers. As Rankireddy sustained a shoulder injury late last year, the pair didn’t participate in the tournaments in Malaysia, Indonesia and All England. Both Rankireddy and Shetty had a plan to start the season with the India Open, however, they have taken back their names now after consulting the physio.
The Tokyo Olympic qualification period starts from April 29 this year and the berths will be allocated according to the ranking list which will be published on April 30 next year.
“Satwik has recovered from his injury but he will only start playing full on in another two weeks, so after consulting the physio we decided to skip the events,” Shetty told PTI.
“The Olympic qualification begins next month and we need to be in our absolute best to pursue our dreams of making the cut for the Tokyo Games. So we will be beginning our season with the New Zealand Open World Tour Super 300. There is
Rankireddy had a shoulder injury before the Premier Badminton League (PBL) and according to the shuttler, it aggravated after he played in the tournament. He has to skip the Senior Nationals and All England Open after that to recover from the injury.
“Before PBL, I had suffered a shoulder injury during training. I didn’t know it was so serious. I played PBL and it aggravated. I came to know later that it was a hairline fracture. So I missed the Nationals and All England,” Rankireddy said.
“But I’m just happy that I can achieve fitness and start playing before the Olympic qualification kicks in late April.”
After the exit of Malaysia’s Tan Kim Her, two new specialist coaches Flandy Limpele and Namrih Suroto have taken over the Indian doubles contingent. Shetty is of the opinion that the Indonesian style of training is a lot different and the sessions under the duo are tough.
“The sessions are pretty tough. In a month’s
“The focus is to achieve agility, he wants us to be more fit and move faster on