For only in their category at the season-ending World Tour Finals can a pair get slotted in what’s commonly called the Group of Death, and emerge out of that to potentially face the world champions or one half of the Olympic title holders.
Worlds winners Seo Seung-jae and Kim Won-ho, with 10 titles this year, would be formidable knockout opponents, as would be Taiwanese Wang Chi-lin, who turned up at the last two Olympics and won both when nobody expected him to.
So, Satwik-Chirag can expect five tough matches if they are dreaming of nailing down the Tour finale.
But first, the official group of death hazards.
On Wednesday, the Indians start against the ever dangerous Chinese Liang Weikeng and Wang Chang. Satwik-Chirag cost them a redemptive medal at the World Championships after the Chinese lost the Olympic final to the Taiwanese. They had their revenge at the Hong Kong Open defeating the Indians, but Liang-Wang – playing the World Tour Finals at home in Qingdao – would want to go the distance.
While the Chinese lead the head-to-head 7-3, the World Championships showed Indians can take them apart with composure. That win, in fact, was the start of the Satwik-Chirag revival in a year in which they climbed back from World No. 27 to No.3.
A potential must-win in their third and last pool game will come against old nemeses Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik. The Malaysians put Satwik-Chirag out of the Olympics in the quarters, and the Worlds reversal at Paris might not exactly be revenge enough. For various reasons – including injuries – Aaron-Soh have been on a downturn in the second half of this year. They won the Asian Championship, Thailand and Singapore and are still World No 2, but have not been at their best since losing the China Open final.
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But the Malaysians have handed too much grief to the Indians to be taken lightly, and SatChi’s coach Tan Kim Her will once again be called on to match wits with top Malaysian coaches, and help his wards out of the ‘D’ group.
No easy matches
It might not be immediately evident, but perhaps the trickiest pairing that Satwik-Chirag might run into in the Group of Death – are the unassuming Indonesians Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Shohibul Fikri.
Proper silent assassins, a lark of an experiment, and an accidental pairing, the scratch pair took the China Open title off Aaron-Soh’s grasp, and immediately got the world to sit up and take notice.
Satwik-Chirag, top seeds at Australia, lost the only time they have faced off with ‘Fi-Fa’, as they are known. And the reasons are slightly unsettling.
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Fi-Fa are an unconventional combine because both are playmakers, who donned the exact same role with their previous partners, with whom they won two All England titles separately. Their front-court ambushes are quite hassling, and they dispatch shuttles with alacrity.
World champs Seo-Kim, are equally good at dispersing chaos, but Fi-Fa carry out these expeditions looking utterly harmless, given their builds. Tough to know if Indonesia intended it to be that way, but they play with the mischief-capabilities of the Minions, a blast from the past, with everything from clever serves to the forecourt control of rallies at high speed.
Fajar and Fikri made five finals out of the eight tournaments they played – in Australia, France, Denmark and Korea, besides winning China. And while it’s curious that they lost four of those, there is consensus that they can prove handful in drifty conditions, and take down anyone.
Maybe not as talented as Minions Kevin and Marcus, who were a nightmare for the Indians, who lost all 11 of their clashes, but Fi-Fa are onto something in their game style that might fully unfurl only in 2026.
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Satwik-Chirag will hope that they don’t catch the lashing tail of this sharky pair as 2025 ends. After having stabilised this year with five semifinals and two finals – but no titles – the Indians can assure themselves that they remain contenders every time they turn up.
A title no Indian save PV Sindhu has won is ample motivation. But the group of Death, is also the simmering pot of disguises, hiding menace. And that’s just to reach the semifinals.
