Swiss Open 2023: Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty crowned men's doubles champions

Add as a preferred source on Google

Basel, March 26: Indian doubles pair Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty on Sunday (March 26) defeated China's Wang Qiang and Ren Xiang Yu to win the Swiss Open 2023 men's doubles title at the St. Jakobshalle in Basel, Switzerland.

Second-seeded pair Satwik-Chirag pair beat the unseeded Chinese pair via straight games 21-19, 24-22 in the final match that lasted for 54 minutes to lift their first title of the season putting to rest the disappointment of All England Championships.

The first game was kind of straightforward for the 2022 World Championships bronze winning pair of Rankireddy and Shetty, but the Chinese duo of Xiang Yu and Qiang made the Indian pair fight hard for the victory in the second game.

With the win in the final, Satwik-Chirag duo became the first Indian doubles pair to win a gold medal at the Swiss Open. They duo join singles players PV Sindhu, Saina Nehwal, Kidambi Srikanth, HS Prannoy and Sameer Verma, who won the title in previous editions.

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.

Earlier, the 2022 Commonwealth Games champions Satwik-Chirag pair sealed a hard fought win over Malaysian pair of Ong Yew Sin and Teo Ee Yi by a scoreline of 21-19, 17-21, 21-17 in the semifinals to reach the summit clash.

In the earlier rounds, the Indian pair beat another Malaysian pair of Boon Xin Yuan and Wong Tien Ci in straight games (21-15, 21-18) to open their campaign in Basel followed by a comeback win (20-22, 21-17, 28-26) over Fang Chih Lee and Fang Jen Lee of Chinese Taipei.

In the quarterfinal, Rankireddy and Shetty were once again tested, but the fighting Indian duo came from behind to beat Denmark pair Jappe Bey and Lasse Molhede by a scoreline of 15-21, 21-11, 21-14 to reach the semis.