Swiss Open 2023: Satwik-Chirag in men’s doubles final, who will they play in title clash today?

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.

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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.

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.