The dynamic doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty won the men’s doubles title after defeating Ren Xiangyu and Tan Qiang at the Swiss Open Super Series 300 badminton tournament on Sunday.
The world number six and second-seeded Indian pair of Satwiksairaj and Chirag, beat their unseeded Chinese opponents 21-19 24-22 in the final.
✅ 1st #BWFWorldTour title of the year✅ First-ever #BWFWorldTourSuper300 title Proud of you boys @satwiksairaj @Shettychirag04
: @badmintonphoto@himantabiswa | @sanjay091968 | @lakhaniarun1 #SwissOpen2023#IndiaontheRise#Badminton pic.twitter.com/P38xrTZicR
— BAI Media (@BAI_Media) March 26, 2023
Both pairs started the match with strong intent and refused to budge in early exchanges. Despite a solid defensive showing by Tan and Ren, including a 47-shot rally to take the fifth point, Chirag and Satwik kept adding to their lead to win the first game in the BWF Super 300 final.
There was little to separate the two teams in the second game as well. After the scores were tied at 11-11, Shetty’s powerful smashes and Rankireddy’s deft touches helped the Indians build a three-point cushion.
The Chinese pair mounted a comeback with a string of attacking shots. They saved four match points but Chirag and Satwik went on to win the match in 54 minutes.
Ren/Tan ???????? rival Rankireddy/Shetty ???????? to claim the title.#BWFWorldTour #SwissOpen2023 pic.twitter.com/PC3fDevefE— BWF (@bwfmedia) March 26, 2023
It was the first title of the season for India with Satwik and Chirag putting to rest the disappointment of last week’s All England Championships where they had exited in the second round.
Overall, it was the fifth career world tour title for the Indian pair, who had claimed the India Open and French Open last year, besides securing the Thailand Open in 2019 and Hyerabad Open in 2018.
Satwik and Chirag had also won the 2022 Commonwealth Games gold.
Earlier, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty had defeated third seeds Ong Yew Sin and Teo Ee Yi of Malaysia 21-19 17-21 21-17 in the semifinal that lasted one hour and nine minutes.
Satwik and Chirag had defeated the Danish pair of Jeppe Bay and Lasse Molhede in three hard-fought games. The Indian pair fought off the challenge in 54 minutes, winning 15-21 21-11 21-14. The victory came after a hard-fought 84-minute quarter-final battle.
Satwik and Chirag were the only Indian contenders left in a tournament where the likes of PV Sindhu and Lakshya Sen suffered early defeats.
(With inputs from Agencies)
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