It was a historic Sunday in Bangkok for Indian badminton as the men's team won the Thomas Cup title for the first time in the tournament's 74-year history with a 3-0 win over defending champions Indonesia in the final.
Victories from Lakshya Sen, the doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty and former World No 1 Kidambi Srikanth guided India to the coveted trophy, the most prestigious title in men's team badminton.
The Indian men's team had previously reached Thomas Cup semis in 1952, 1955, and 1979 while Indonesia are the most successful nation in the history of the tournament, with 14 titles to their name.
Among the many members of the Indian contingent was a certain Dane – Mathias Boe. The former doubles world number 1 was officially signed to coach Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty in March this year, but he has been working with the pair for a while. In fact, after the Tokyo Olympics, when they didn't have a coach, Chirag approached Mathias, who was in Mumbai at the time, to guide the pair and they even moved base to Mumbai to work with him.
But what was a Danish retired badminton star doing in India? Well, he was just spending time with his partner, Bollywood actor Taapsee Pannu.
"He is probably the only guy who has won Thomas Cup gold medals as a player and a coach. I am quite proud of him," Taapsee told The Quint.
"I think one thing he always says about them is that they have it in them to make it to the top. I remember when he used to play with Chirag in Mumbai, he used to say he was good. I think at that time, Chirag was way younger than what he is right now. I used to always ask him if the practice was worth it, because he was probably World No 1 around that time and he used to play with Chirag to stay in competition mode. He used to say Chirag was good back then too," Taapsee said, sharing a little insight into Mathias' relationship with his young wards.
"He always felt they were just unlucky at the Olympics. He was very confident of them, and still is. Whenever I spoke to him, in between Thomas Cup matches, and would ask him what he thinks about the next match. He was always confident about the doubles pair. He would say Satwik and Chirag have got it, they will win. Even when they were up against the Indonesian air combination of World Nos 1 and 2, Kevin and Ehsan," Taapsee told The Quint.
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