Satwik-Chirag pair wins Swiss Open Super 300 doubles title; highlights

Here are Sportstar’s highlights of the Swiss Open Super 300 men’s doubles final between Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty and Ren Xiang Yu-Tan Qiang 

SECOND GAME

• ⦿22-24: Win for Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty!!! They convert their championship point this time to win their first title of the 2023 season.
• ⦿22-21: Ren and Tan have saved three match points and have a game point of their own to keep title hopes alive…. and they cannot convert.
• ⦿20-20: Lady luck shines on Tan as he wins the point after the shuttle hits the net from his shot, deceiving Rankireddy and Shetty.
• ⦿19-20: The Indians tried to level best to convert their championship point. However, the Chinese makes them run all around the court and wins the point after Shetty’s shot falls out of play.
• ⦿17-19: Rankireddy forces the error with some good forward play. The crowd lets out a roar. They can sense that victory is near.
• ⦿16-16: The Chinese duo has come back into the match. Despite Shetty’s good defensive work, they cannot cope with the onslaught from Ren and Tan. We are level.
• ⦿15-16: Careless bit of play from Rankireddy as he goes wide with his shot, which is unlike him in today’s match. He wasn’t under that much of pressure and it was a fairly easy shot to return.
• ⦿13-15: It is a battle between Shetty and Tan at the net, with some quick returns. The Chinese wins the battle after he shows some good judgement to leave Shetty’s shot, as it goes out of play.
• ⦿11-14: Good communication between Rankireddy and Shetty as the former wins the point with a smash from their own baseline and opens up a three-point lead.
• ⦿11-11: Stunning defence from Ren and Tan to equal points yet again in Game 2. Rankireddy and Shetty had many opportunities to win the point as they dishes out some deadly smashes but the Chinese duo stood tall with their defence.
• ⦿9-11: Rankireddy and Shetty, enjoy a two-point lead at the mid-game interval. They had a three-point lead (8-11) in Game 1.
• ⦿8-8: The Chinese duo levels the points with an impressive bit of play. Their opponent could not deal with the pace.
• ⦿6-7: Rankireddy and Shetty was conservative with their initial attack but expanded their play as the rally progressed. They win the point after some impressive placement from a Shetty smash.
• ⦿4-3: That was impressive from Shetty. He create his own opening with his first smash, which was just returned. But there was no scope of returning the second smash from Ren and Tan. The Indians on their way to making the comeback in Game 2.
• ⦿1-1: Game 2 has already impressed with some excellent doubles badminton. Both teams level at the moment.

FIRST GAME

• ⦿19-21: The first game goes to the Indians . It went down to the wire by Rankireddyeddy and Shetty keep their nerve to see out the game.
• ⦿18-20: Superb placement from Chirag as Ren and Tan has no answer for his crosscourt smash. Game point for the Indian duo.
• ⦿16-18: Chirag lets the shuttle drop but it is called in. The Indians go for a review, but hawk-eye shows that the shuttle was well in. Ren and Tan win the point.
• ⦿12-17: Despite the lead, it has not been an easy ride for the Indians as they have been put under constant pressure. Satwik has been good today at the nets.
• ⦿10-15: Another impressive rally from Rankireddy and Shetty, finishes with a couple of brilliant smashes by Reddy. The second smash proved too fast for Ren and Tan to deal with.
• ⦿8-11: The Indian duo have a three-point lead as we break for the mid-game interval.
• ⦿7-10: The Chinese duo seemed to have won the point to make it 7-9, but Rankireddy and Shetty wins the point, courtesy of some fast hands and returning an impressive smash.
• ⦿6-6: The Chinese duo have made an impressive comeback from trailing 3-0. We have already had a dramatic moment today as the shuttle got stuck at the top of the net. Play let. Both sides are producing nice returns.
• ⦿2-3: A great rally of 47 shots. The Indians putting up an impressive defence initially but Tan’s superb crosscourt backhand drive wins him and Ren the point.
• ⦿1-3: A good start from Satwik and Chirag as they get three straight points, before a service fault gifts Ren and Tan with the first point of their match.

Toss Update: Ren Xiang Yu and Tan Qiang wins the toss and they are going to start the match with the serve; Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty to receive.

PREVIEW

India’s top men’s doubles combo of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty will be playing their first final of the BWF World Tour 2023 when they take on China’s unseeded Ren Xiang Yu and Tan Qiang in the final of the Swiss Open, a Super 300 badminton tournament, in Basel on Sunday.

Satwik-Chirag, the second seed, overcame a mid-game hiccup against Ong Yewsin-Teo Eeyi of Malaysia in a three-game contest on Saturday to keep India’s hope in the Super Series alive by entering the final.

The world no. 6 Indian pair, who reached the semifinal at Malaysia Open Super 1000 in January, defeated Yewsin and Eeyi 21-19 17-21 21-17 in a thrilling semifinal that lasted one hour and nine minutes.

Satwik and Chirag, who won India Open and French Open Super Series titles in 2022, will start favourites against the newly formed pairing of Xiang Yu and Qiang in Sunday’s summit clash. This will be their first meeting in any tournaments.

On their way to the finals, the Indian duo defeated Denmark’s Jeppe Bay and Lasse Molhede in a hard-fought quarterfinal, that too was decided in the third game. The match lasted for 54 minutes.

It was their third consecutive three-game contests since they defeated Lee Fang-Chih and Lee Fang-Jen in the second round.

Satwik and Chirag are the only Indian title contenders left in a tournament where defending champion P.V. Sindhu and Lakshya Sen suffered first-round exists. The women’s doubles combo of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand too made an early exit.

For the men’s doubles duo, a title in Basel will will give them renewed confidence for the battles ahead

Where to watch the men’s doubles final?

The live streaming of the Swiss Open 2023 men’s doubles final will be available on BWF TV, the official YouTube channel of the Badminton World Federation. The match will also be live streamed on Jio Cinema.