Mathias Boe, the Danish badminton coach of the Indian doubles team, wants World No.7-ranked pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty to stop respecting their opponents too much and focus on their own style of play. Boe, 41, who was re-hired as doubles coach by the Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS) at a salary of Rs 7 lakh per month in a contract that runs till the end of September’s Asian Games in Hangzhou, China, told mid-day on Friday: “They [Rankireddy- Shetty] have the potential to be at the very top. But for that, they need to be a little bit more consistent. They have too much respect for their opponents; need to put the respect on hold and focus on their game style. If they can be a bit better tactically and take advantage of their strength and at the same time, their opponents’ weak side, they can achieve a lot more. These are some of the things that we plan to work on in order to win tournaments.”

Training at Goregaon

The London 2012 Olympics doubles silver medallist has been training Rankireddy-Shetty at the Goregaon Sports Club for the past one week, even before his formal appointment as coach. “Since the Badminton Association of India [BAI] had selection trials in New Delhi, Chirag and Satwik were left with no sparring partners. So, we flew in a couple of juniors from Hyderabad and have been practising in Mumbai. “In every exercise, we aim to be perfectionists and better in tactical aspects of the game. In every exercise, we try to adjust small things that would have helped me to do better in my playing days. That’s how I see badminton,” said Boe.

Hungry to win