With WTT Feeder title, Sathiyan gets ‘belief’ back in his game

From playing the big-ticket WTT Contender tournaments and most recently the prestigious Singapore Smash, G Sathiyan turned up for a WTT Feeder event in Lebanon this week. Battling to find form and confidence, it was a conscious decision on his part to “play a lot of matches and get into that rhythm”.
The move to come a step down not only earned the current world No.103 a title triumph, but also the feel of touching a high level again for the former world No.24.
Sathiyan won the men’s singles title at the WTT Feeder Beirut beating higher-ranked compatriot Manav Thakkar 3-1 (6-11, 11-7, 11-7, 11-4) in the final on Thursday night. Sathiyan also went past India No.2 Harmeet Desai and Chinese Taipei’s 39th-ranked Chuang Chih-Yuan, a former world No.3, along the way.
The 125 points from the event will make Sathiyan jump around 40 places in the updated rankings. And, with Sharath Kamal’s surge to No.34 post his Singapore show and Desai and Thakkar too in the mix, will “give the selectors a good headache” — as Sathiyan put it — to pick the men’s team and two singles entries for the Paris Olympics.
“This (title win) has come at the right time,” Sathiyan said. “Having that big win against Chuang (in the semis) gave me a lot of confidence, because that is where I felt I belonged. And converting it into a title, it really puts a lot of belief that I’m back to the elite level again. It’s not just about winning; I felt like I played at a very good level. The belief in the game has returned.”
So has fluency in his stroke-making, he reckons. A drop in form, and spasms in his back during the Nationals last December, instilled doubts and jitters in his shots. Never before since he became a top 50 player in 2018 did Sathiyan’s rankings drop so drastically, nor did he go through a patch as lean as the one over the last few months. His confidence “low” coming back from the injury,
Sathiyan couldn’t advance beyond the qualifying rounds in the four big tournaments this year in Doha, Goa and Singapore. “It is really hard, there’s no beating around the bush. It’s hard when you’ve played at a certain level, and you know that it is dropping. Mentally you have to fight yourself first. But at one point when I was playing bad, I stopped comparing to how I was playing before. That is when I felt I moved ahead. You have to accept the present — that you are at this level — and then work from there,” he said.
A short break — “for a few days, I didn’t touch my racquet, because I felt like I was just circling around” — helped. On the fresher end of that, Sathiyan went deep into fixing his game, which revolved largely around not hurrying into his shots and getting his body sync going again.
“I was losing close matches, which was frustrating. I introspected a lot — where the stroke-making or movements were going wrong. I decided to focus on my training even while I was at tournaments,” he said.
And not too much at the rankings that nosedived. “Sure, at the beginning, it was a little shocking. But then I knew rankings are just a by-product, and that if you do the right things, it will take care of itself.”
Sathiyan is set to jump from the 100s to the 60s in the rankings with Desai (No.65) and Thakkar (No.74) also among the pack of Indian contenders for Paris in the men’s team and singles events. The belief in his game back, Sathiyan’s resurgence adds another dimension to the selection dilemma.
“It will make things interesting now,” Sathiyan chuckled. “All three of us are close to the top 50, so it’s going to be fun. I like this healthy competition. Everyone is playing well. There are a few more events before the deadline. If I keep this momentum, there is a possibility to play in all the three events.”
The third event is mixed doubles, which Sathiyan had identified as India’s best shot at an Olympic medal while pairing up with Manika Batra. Showing promise initially, the results have plateaued of late for the 25th-ranked Indians.
“Mixed hasn’t gone well in the last few months. Both of us had injuries and little dips in form at different points. We couldn’t get that A game together on the day,” Sathiyan said.
“But again, it’s a phase. I will carry this confidence into the mixed as well. We have a couple of events left before the Olympic qualifiers in April. We’ll give it our best shot, and if we can make it, I still feel mixed has the best chance for a medal.”