Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, a potent Indian doubles team, defeated the Danish team of Jeppe Bay and Lasse Molhede in three tense games to go to the Swiss Open Super Series 300 badminton semifinals.
The Indian duo defeated their opponent on Friday night in 54 minutes, winning 15-21, 21-11, and 21-14.
After a tense 84-minute quarterfinal match, they prevailed, and they will now meet Ong Yew Sin and Teo Ee Yi of Malaysia late on Saturday night.
In a competition when players like PV Sindhu and Lakshya Sen were eliminated early, Satwik-Chirag are the only Indian competitors still standing.
The Indian team got off to a rough start, losing the opening game handily at 15-21. In the midst of the game, when they were down 15-16, the pair did pick things up. They cut the gap to just one point.
Nonetheless, the Danish team scored six straight points to easily win the opening game.
In the second game, the Indian team stepped up the pace and rapidly built a lead of 11-4 at the halftime mark. By the time parity was reestablished, they had increased their advantage to eleven points.
The third game began evenly, but the Indians excelled at the basket as they quickly took the lead at 11-7 and then held onto it the whole time to advance to the final four.
After the pair’s unfortunate early-round defeat from the All-England Championships, a tournament victory will represent a successful return.
