Krishna Prasad and Vishnu Vardhan benefiting from training with Chirag-Satwik

The combination of Krishna Prasad Garaga and Vishnu Vardhan Goud made a big impact at the Orleans Masters BWF World Tour 100 badminton tournament in France a few months ago.

Playing for the first time together, the duo stormed into the men’s doubles final, surprising everyone.

With the exception of PV Sindhu, all the top Indian players played in that tournament, including Saina Nehwal, Kidambi Srikanth, Parupalli Kashyap and HS Prannoy. However, all those established names failed to reach the final while trying to get the required points for the Tokyo Olympics qualification.

Meanwhile, the pair playing their maiden tournament together emerged as the main contenders from India. Krishna Prasad and Vishnu Vardhan's dream run finally came to an end in the final.

The unseeded Indian pair put up a valiant effort but went down fighting against fourth seeds Ben Lane and Sean Vendy of England in the men’s doubles final.

The world No. 18 English pair rallied back to halt Krishna and Vishnu's spectacular run with a 19-21, 21-14, 21-19 victory in 56 minutes.

Krishna Prasad, 21, and Vishnu Vardhan, 20, did not feel the pressure of the final and played like a mature pair in their first big summit clash together.

So far, no Indian men’s doubles pair have won a BWF Super 100 tournament on their debut. Recalling the exciting finale and how they squandered away a golden opportunity to make history, Krishna Prasad said:

“We had a great chance to create history. We started off very well and pocketed the first game. However, the experienced English duo of Ben Lane and Sean Vendy restored their parity by claiming a second game at 21-14 to force the decider. The third game was very close. After trailing narrowly at the customary break, we made it 12-12 and took the lead at 13-12 and 14-13 to raise the hopes of a famous win.”

Inexperience ended up costing Krishna Prasad and Vishnu Vardhan

Explaining how they tried their best but perhaps their lack of experience cost them dearly in the final against seasoned England opponents, Vishnu said:

“In the third game we were in contention till the final few minutes of the match. The score was leveled till 18-18. At that stage, we had our chances as we managed to take a marginal lead at 19-18. We were within two points of lifting our careers’ biggest trophy. However, we failed to keep our nerves intact and lost the next three points in a row to settle for a silver medal. The English pair used their vast experience to good effect to shatter our hopes,” said Vishnu Vardhan.

Krishna Prasad and Vishnu Vardhan, both trainees of Pullela Gopichand Academy, might have narrowly lost the final but they won the hearts of everyone with their sensational performance.

Krishna Prasad Garaga (left) and Vishnu Vardhan Goud

Interestingly, the same English pair of Ben Lane and Sean Vendy have been drawn with Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy in Group A in the Tokyo Olympics. The Tokyo-bound pair of Chirag and Satwik can certainly take some feedback from Krishna Prasad and Vishnu Vardhan on how to counter the English duo.

The world No. 10 pair of Chirag and Satwik are training under the watchful eye of specialist doubles coach Mathias Boe of Denmark. Both Krishna Prasad and Vishnu Vardhan, along with Dhruv Kapila and MR Arjun are playing the roles of sparring partners for Chirag-Satwik.

Breaking down just how the relationship is helping, Vishnu Vardhan said:

“It would be ideal if Chirag-Satwik can avenge our close defeat at the Orleans Masters. We will certainly share our experiences of that match with Chirag and Satwik. We have been training together at the Gachibowli Stadium since April. It has been a great experience so far. We play regularly against Chirag-Satwik and it is definitely benefiting us. The guidance from Mathais Boe is an added advantage. He is a very professional coach and cooperative. He explains to us if we make any mistakes and also tells us how to play shots correctly.”

Chirag-Satwik will be leaving for Tokyo next week just as Mathias Boe's contract is poised to run out. With that in mind, Krishna Prasad said:

“We would definitely like to learn as much as possible from Boe in the last few days now. The most significant thing about him is that he expects all of us to play absolutely correctly. Almost after each point, he tells us about the rally and how it should have been played. Since he was a legendary doubles player himself and retired just a year ago, he is very much an active person on the court. It has been a wonderful experience playing under him.”

Both Krishna Prasad and Vishnu Vardhan now want to emulate the formidable pair of Chirag and Satwik and establish themselves as the best duo in the future. With the 2024 Olympics in his crosshairs, Vishnu said:

“We have a target of 2024 Olympics in our minds. We want to represent the country at the biggest games in the world. We would like to play every tournament from now on to improve our rankings. Our priority is to play higher tournaments like Super 300 and Super 500 so that we can improve our rankings fast. We have confidence in each other. If we could participate in more tournaments in the coming six months then we can break into the top-50 in world rankings.”

After playing just one tournament, Krishna Prasad and Vishnu Vardhan are ranked 249th in the world.

Before the pandemic, Vishnu Vardhan and Ishaan Bhatnagar were ranked No. 1 in the Under-19 boys singles in India. After playing with Dhruv Kapila for a number of years, Krishna Prasad was left without a partner. He played a few tournaments with senior player Shlok Ramchandran before the latter decided to quit badminton. In between, Krishna also played with Pranaav Jerry Chopra.

Looking back on how he and Vishnu eventually became a pair, Krishna Prasad said:

“I was looking for a steady partner then Gopichand Sir told me to play with Vishnu Vardhan. He was also in search of a new partner. Since we were only doubles players for the last six years, we instantly struck form together. It has been almost eight months now since we started training together. We would like to continue our partnership together for many years.”

Krishna Prasad and Vishnu Vardhan are slated to play two tournaments next month: The Denmark Challenge (August 5-8) and, following that, the Akita Masters Super 100 tournament in Japan (August 17-22).