File photo of Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy.© AFP
The Indian men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty beat China’s Tang Qian and Ren Yu Xiang 21-19 and 24-22 to win the men’s doubles title in Swiss Open Super Series 300 2023 on Sunday. Satwik and Chirag, the 2022 World Championships bronze medallist, were involved in a closely-fought affair with the Chinese pair. The second-seeded Indian pair, the 2022 World Championships bronze medallist, was solid in defence and dished out an attacking game to outwit the world No. 21 pair 21-19, 24-22 in 54 minutes.
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.
The top India men’s doubles badminton pair had earlier advanced to the final of the tournament after beating the Malaysian pair of Ong Yew Sin and Teo Ee Yi. The world number six India doubles pair had defeated their world number eight opponents by 21-19, 17-21, 21-17 in a highly-competitive semi-final match.
With PTI inputs
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