When Mathias Boe was roped in to train India's Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy, the Danish wanted the duo to play fearless badminton. He did not want to be a coach in the truest sense of the term but more of a guide who would lead them to unchartered territories which will help them explore their potential and the facets of their own game which were hitherto unknown.
Boe himself has scaled almost all the summits of badminton including a podium finish at the London Olympics with compatriot Carsten Mogensen. In the good old days, he would train himself to achieve perfection rather than results and with Shetty & Rankireddy he did the same.
Two weeks ago, the Indian pair was knocked out at the round of 32 stage of the Singapore Open by World No. 23 Akira Koga and Taichi Sato which put their progress under the scanner. Before that tournament, they were ousted in the Thailand Open in the round of 16. And in the Sudirman Cup in May, Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik beat them in straight games to win 21-18, 21-19. The reigning world champions were fast and their forecourt pace troubled the Indians which revealed their chinks in the armour.
In the Indonesian Open final, they faced the same pair against whom they have a dismal head-to-head record of 0-8. However, in this tournament, they were playing some outrageous badminton. They had lost just one game and in front of a packed arena at the Istora Senayan in Jakarta, they hardly put a foot put wrong.
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They chose to counter fire with fire and instead of catching up with the Malaysian pair they took the game to them and were on the offensive right from the word go.
"In the past, we would get caught playing a flat game against them. This time the plan was not to hold ourselves back when. We knew we had to be upfront. We knew we had to keep the rallies short.
"This time we felt we had to attack the first four shots itself. That way we wanted them to work and take the point. In the past maybe we didn’t have the defence to play that sort of game but we know we have a very strong defence right now," said Rankireddy after the final.
Boe echoed the thoughts of his pupil and threw light on the defensive gameplan that stifled the Malaysians.
"We can’t play attacking style all the time. We also need to be able to score a few points from the defence. We have a tendency when we are under pressure to lift flat. As I said before, that’s what the Malaysians want.
"The Malaysian duo are not as tall as the Indians are. So if we lift flat, we lift right onto their racquets. That also leaves us less time to react. So what was really important was that we lift really high so that we have time to stand in the defence and then try and counter it. Today we succeeded really well. Just not overstressing, lifting the shuttle high and standing ready in the defence. Then we scored quite a few points and the Malaysians realised that we were not giving as many points as we had done in previous encounters," Boe revealed to Indian Express.
Indeed, the Indians did not repeat their previous mistakes. They were on the front foot all throughout the game which took their opponents by surprise. They were going into their smashes pretty early and held their defence to perfection when required.
"We knew they would make mistakes. We didn’t really give them a chance to come back. We decided we won’t play safe because that becomes slow which is playing into their hands. We attacked," Shetty commented after the win.
It was their first BWF 1000 title, that too in their maiden attempt, and the victory propelled them to their career-best ranking of No. 3 in the world. However, their job is far from over. They have proven that they remain unphased in the finals and can hold their nerves as they have won eight out of the 10 summit clashes they have participated in. In fact, they last went down in a final back in 2019 in the French Open when they were beaten by Marcus Gideon and Kevin Sukamuljo in straight Games.
Boe knows that Shetty and Rankireddy are one of the best pairs in the world. They are players for the long haul and their coach is prepared to rev up their preparations all the way to the World Championship and the Hangzhou Asian Games in September so that they arrive in the best shape in the biggest tournaments of the year.
"We want to play our best and prepare as well as we can. That’s what is in our control. The level we have now, we don’t just go to the tournament to play one match. Sometimes our opponents play well and we have to accept that.
"We’re going to go home and have a little break in the upcoming week. Then we have three weeks to prepare for the Korea Open (July 18-23) and Japan Open (July 25-30). Then we have three weeks and then they’re playing at the World Championship. That’s a huge goal. The plan for what we have to do is already decided," Boe stated.
The goal is set. The plan is chalked out. What about the results? Boe is not bothered. Rather he believes in controlling the controllable. If the plan is executed to perfection, very few pairs in the world can stop the Indian juggernaut.
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