Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty advanced to the semifinals of the Swiss Open Super 300 after defeating Denmark’s Jeppe Bay and Lasse Molhede in the quarterfinals on Friday. The Indian duo needed three games totaling 54 minutes to get past the Danish pair (15-21 21-11 21-14), setting up a semi-final clash against third-seeded Malaysian Ong Yew Sin and Teo Ee Yi. Saturday. .
The only remaining Indian representatives at the Swiss Open, Satwik-Chirag, got off to a slow start to the tie following their grueling three-game, 81-minute win to reach the quarterfinals. The Indian pair never really got going, losing early on with Bay-Molhede leading by as many as five points at the interval, with the score 11-6 in their favour. It grew to 15-9 before SatChi brought it back to 16-15, only for the Danes to rattle off five straight winners and take the first game 21-15.
That served to awaken the Indian duo, who returned to their best in the second game, winning 11-4 at the change of wingers. They increased their lead to a 10-point margin and never gave up, closing out the second game with ease to set up a decider.
The final game started on an even note, with both teams trading blows, but the quality of Satwik-Chirag saw them pull away to 11-7 at the interval. Thereafter, they opened up a seven-point lead, and it was only a matter of time before they closed out the game with a 21-14 victory in the decider.
The win set up a tricky semi-final clash against Malaysia’s Ong-Teo pairing, who hold the upper hand in their head-to-head, with Satwik-Chirag only defeating them twice in five tries. The other semi-final has China’s Xiang Yu Ren and Qiang Tan taking on Satwik-Chirag’s familiar foes Ben Lane and England’s Sean Vendy.
Earlier, Satwik-Chirag had started the tournament with a comfortable 21-15, 21-18 win over the Malaysian pairing of Boon Xin Yuan and Wong Tien Ci in the first round. They went on to edge out Chinese Taipei’s Fang-Chih Lee and Fang-Jen Lee (12-21 21-17 28-26), before beating Bay-Molhede in the quarterfinals on Friday.
