Satwik-Chirag, Lakshya finish runners-up at Hong Kong Open
Hong Kong, Sep 14 (PTI): India squandered a golden opportunity to return with two titles as both Lakshya Sen and the men's doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty signed off with runner-up finishes at the Hong Kong Open Super 500 here on Sunday.
Lakshya could not blunt the attack of world No. 4 Li Shi Feng and went down 15-21 12-21 in a rather sedate men's singles final.
"It's been a good week, especially coming back from World Championships where things didn't go as planned.(For) three to four weeks, we (have) put in a good work. (A) lot of positives to take from this tournament," Lakshya said after the defeat in the final.
"(I) just need to believe in myself more. I need to keep the same from day one what I was doing, the process," he added.
Satwik and Chirag, who bagged a second successive World Championships bronze last month, let go of a one-game advantage before losing 21-19 14-21 17-21 to China's Olympic silver medallists Liang Wei Keng and Wang Chang in a tense 61-minute men's doubles summit clash.
"Yeah, obviously feels good. Been a good week, especially after the world championships a week later and here we are playing a final. Feels good," Chirag said.
"You would want to go and win that title but I think, credit to them, they played well. There's always a next time and overall happy with the performance."
For Lakshya, it was his first final since the Syed Modi Super 300 last November, but he could not match his familiar foe Li, against whom he was playing for the 14th time in a rivalry dating back to their junior days.
The Indian held a slender 7-6 edge in the head-to-head, but the Chinese has dominated this season with wins at both the All England and China Open.
The 2021 World Championship bronze medallist Lakshya made a brisk start in the opening game, surging to a 4-0 lead before Li found his rhythm with sharp body attacks and flat exchanges to close in at 6-7. The Chinese drew level at 8-8 with an athletic net kill and then reeled off five straight points with a mix of tight net play and steep smashes to take control at 14-10.
Lakshya tried to wrest back the front court but miscued at crucial moments as Li moved ahead 19-15. The Chinese then unleashed a jump cross-court smash to pocket the opener 21-15.
Playing with the drift in the second game, Lakshya again started brightly at 4-1, only for Li to claw back with measured rallies. Errors at the net and a wide smash saw the Indian trail 7-4, and despite producing some sharp defensive strokes to reduce the deficit to 9-12, he was unable to blunt Li's relentless attack.
The world No. 4 kept up the pressure, surged to 15-9, and eventually grabbed eight match points before sealing it with another deft cross-court net dribble.
For Satwik and Chirag, it was their first final appearance in 16 months since winning the Thailand Open, and the loss ended their perfect record in Super 500 finals, having won all four they had contested earlier.
The Indians, who have reached six semifinals this season, had a 3-6 head-to-head record against Liang and Wang coming into the match. They had beaten them at the World Championships in Paris.
However, Satwik and Chirag failed to sustain the momentum after pocketing the opener and, having conceded an inexplicable 2-11 deficit in the decider, were left chasing the game.
"I think the shuttles were a bit fast. They were quite good at the 3-4 strokes. Put us under a lot of pressure in the first 4-5 strokes because they were retrieving quite hard.
"So I think we could have better planned in the second set, especially the third set as well. In the first game we countered it quite well, kept it low, but we weren't able to do that in the second and third."
The opening game was a thriller, with Chirag unleashing booming smashes to erase an early deficit and give India a slender lead at the interval. The Chinese fought back to nose ahead, but Satwik’s thunderous smash and a precision serve from Chirag sealed the game 21-19.
Liang and Wang, however, wrested back control in the second, racing to an 8-2 lead and maintaining their dominance with sharp front-court play and powerful smashes. Despite a brief Indian recovery, errors at the net proved costly as the Chinese levelled the contest.
The decider saw Liang and Wang storm to a 5-0 start and extend it to 11-2 at the break, capitalising on Indian lapses in coordination. Satwik and Chirag saved three match points in a late fightback but eventually faltered with a wide return, allowing the Chinese to clinch the title.
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Cong says LoPs not invited to Putin banquet, takes swipe at Tharoor for accepting invite
New Delhi (PTI): The Congress on Friday said Leaders of Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi have not been invited to the banquet for Russian President Vladimir Putin, and took a swipe at its own MP Shashi Tharoor for accepting the invite.
Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh said, "There has been speculation whether the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha and the Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha have been invited for tonight's official dinner in honour of President Putin. The two LoPs have not been invited."
Congress' media and publicity department head Pawan Khera accused the government of breaking protocols daily and not believing in democratic principles.
"There is no invite to both the LoPs, Mr (Mallikarjun) Kharge and Mr (Rahul) Gandhi. This comes as a surprise but I don't think we should be surprised. This government is known to be breaching all protocols. What else to say, ask the government," he told PTI Videos on the sidelines of an event.
Asked about party MP Tharoor getting invited to the banquet and accepting the invitation, Khera said, "Ask Mr. Tharoor. All of us who are in the party, if our leaders don't get invited and we get invited, we need to question our own conscience and listen to our conscience. Politics has been played in inviting or not inviting people, which in itself is questionable and those who accept such an invite is also questionable," Khera said.
"We would have listened to our voice of conscience," he added.
Earlier, Tharoor said there was a time when the chairman of the external affairs committee was routinely invited but that practice seems to have stopped from some years.
"It has been resumed ...I have been invited, yes. I will definitely go," the chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs said.
On the LoPs reportedly not getting an invite, Tharoor said, "I don't know on what basis invitations were sent. I think the custom that usually used to be followed was for a wide representation. Certainly, I remember in the olden days, they used to invite not only the LoPs, (but) various other cross section of representatives of different parties. It conveys a good impression."
"I dont know the basis (of invitation), this is all done by the government, by the protocol by the Rashtrapati Bhawan, what do I know. All I can say I have honoured to have been invited. Of course I will go," Tharoor told reporters in the Parliament House complex.
Gandhi on Thursday had alleged that the government tells visiting foreign dignitaries not to meet the Leader of the Opposition due to its "insecurity".
His remarks had come hours ahead of Putin's two-day visit to India.
Gandhi had said it is a tradition that visiting foreign dignitaries meet the LoP but Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Ministry of External Affairs were not following this norm.
"Normally the tradition is that those who come from abroad have a meeting with the LoP. This used to happen during (Atal Bihari) Vajpayee ji's time, Manmohan Singh ji's time, it has been a tradition but what happens these days is that when foreign dignitaries come and when I go abroad, the government suggests to them to not meet the LoP," Gandhi had told reporters in Parliament House complex.
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