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Indian men's doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty entered the semi-finals of the Swiss Open Super 2023 Series 300 badminton tournament after defeating Denmark's Jeppe Bay and Lasse Molhede in a hard-fought three-game match in Basel on Friday.
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The Indian pair registered a 15-21, 21-11, 21-14 win in a match that lasted 54 minutes. This was Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy's second win against Jeppe Bay and Lasse Molhede in as many meetings. The Indian pair had beaten the Danes in the round of 16 of the BWF World Championships last year. Satwik-Chirag will next take on the Malaysian pair of Ong Yew Sin-Teo Ee Yi. The Malaysian pair defeated the Indian duo en route to winning bronze at the 2021 world championships and hold a 3-2 lead in the head-to-head fixtures.
The Indian pair made a good comeback in the Swiss Open 2023 tournament after suffering a first-round exit at the All England Championships earlier. Chirag Shetty-Satwiksairaj Rankireddy is the last remaining Indian challenge at this year's Swiss Open 2023. With the early exits of players like PV Sindhu and Lakshya Sen, India's chances now hinge on the star pair of men's doubles.
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It was not a good start for the Indian pair. At one point in the first game, they were trailing by only one point at 15-16. But after that, the Danish pair scored six points in a row to win the first game. Satwik and Chirag found their rhythm in the second game and took a strong 11-4 lead at the interval. After that, they did not look back and won the second game to take the match to the decider. The Indian pair did well in the third game as well and led 11-7 at the interval. After this, they took a seven-point lead and maintained it till the end to gracefully make it to the Swiss Open 2023 semi-finals.