2023 Swiss Open | Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty lift title, beat Chinese pair in finals
CWG champions 2022 Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy won the 2023 Swiss Open men's doubles title after they beat the Chinese pair of Tan Qiang and Ren Xiang Yu on Sunday. The Indian pair got the better of their Chinese opponents 21-19, 24-22 to lodge their first title win of the season.
The Chinese team lost their first game in the entire tournament and the Indians had to work extra hard for it, as there was not much to separate the two. In fact, there was a 47-shot rally in the first game too, but somehow the Indians held their own in the end.
Come the second game, the relatively inexperienced Chinese pair saved four match points to make life uncomfortable for the Indians. Finally, the latter won in 54 minutes. Meanwhile, Satwik and Chirag's last title had come in October 2022, when they won the French Open. Now they will be seen in the Madrid Open next week.
On the other hand, rest of the Indian players had been ousted early in the tournament and no one else had even managed to reach the quarters too. This is also the first title for any Indian in 2023 summing up in what has been a poor year so far.