The sight of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty dancing after a big win is a familiar one by now given how often they get those wins. Off goes Chirag's T-shirt and then off goes Chirag, straight into Satwik's arms. Sometimes, after a particularly tough match, there are loud roars to let out the pent up emotions, falling down on court in relief.
On Saturday, there was a new element - Satwik laying down flat on court, bowing in a saashtang pranam to his coaches P Gopichand and Mathias Boe, touching their feet.
The new move was fitting for their new landmark - India's first ever badminton gold medal at the Asian Games. This medal fulfils a long-held dream of Indian badminton, something that even the stalwarts Syed Modi, Prakash Padukone, Gopichand, PV Sindhu, Saina Nehwal couldn't achieve.
Satwik and Chirag have gone where no Indian has gone before - and they've reached there with the ease of champions.
That they would one day stand atop a podium with a major gold medal around their neck was expected, inevitable almost.
Over the past 14 months they've scripted enough historic firsts for Indian badminton to head into the Asian Games as favourites.
But there is a difference between being favourites and living up to that tag, especially in such an emphatic manner. In their five matches in the doubles event at Hangzhou, they dropped just one game - in the second round. They dominated their nemesis pair, Malaysia's Aaron Chia and Soh Wooh Yik, in the semifinals and made multiple mini-comebacks in the final against an inspired Choi Somgyul and Kun Wonho.
They made winning the gold look easy - though winning a badminton gold at the Asian Games is anything but. Not when the continent dominates the game. Not when they are being held in China, the long-standing badminton powerhouse.
The men's doubles badminton podium in Hangzhou featured the reigning Olympic champions and last year's World Champions, both winning bronze medals. There were no Indonesians or Chinese pairs, another rarity.
The world No 1 and 2 pairs had lost early and the highest standing players left in the semifinal were the Indians, who will soon become the world No 1 themselves. Another first for Indian badminton, of course.
An expected, extraordinary gold
Why was their win expected? Mainly because they had two of the strongest forces in sport together - fearlessness and form guide. In 2023, despite two brief injury layoffs, they have already won five titles - Swiss Open Super 300, Badminton Asia Championships, Indonesia Open Super 1000, Korea Open Super 500 and now the Asian Games.
In fact, their final record since the start of 2022 is remarkable: 8/8, with a title on each rung of the BWF Tour, and gold medals in other big competitions.
They may have had two rough losses right before the Asiad - one match short of a medal at the Worlds and a first-round exit in the China Open Super 1000 - but they were the most consistent pair in a fluctuating men's doubles landscape. And very few can stop them once they reach the final.
The biggest stage is their platform to shine. They fear no one, believe themselves to be the best and have learnt with experience how to recalibrate and win.
As they did in the semifinals here, cruising past a pair they had a 8-0 record against till a few months back. At the start of this season, beating Soh and Chia was a career goal; now they've done it for two of their biggest titles.
Or like in the final, where they were put on the backfoot early by a young pair they had a better 2-0 record against. They were trailing 4-8 and then 15-18 against a pair that was sending returns at rocket speed and defending like a wall.
Satwik and Chirag needed to shed their early jitters, clean up the errors and get the job done. They did just that, winning six straight points to virtually steal the first game. To win when you are not the best pair on court is a skill, too. Once they got the first one in the bag, it was all about the momentum and attacking the opponents weaker links, which they did with ease.
They could regroup mid-game and get the job done so calmly because they have been doing this for months now.
They have put themselves in this situation so many times before - a first India Open final, the pressure of playing at home, a first CWG final, dealing with a packed crowd cheering against them, a first Super 1000 final, against a pair they have never beaten before.
And they've won every single time.
Inevitable.