Singapore: India’s top men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty stayed on course for their maiden title of the season, storming into the Singapore Open semifinals with a straight-game win over world No. 1 Malaysian duo of Goh Sze Fei and Nur
Izzuddin here on Friday.
Making a comeback after battling fitness issues for the last few weeks, the Indian pair displayed rock-solid defence and controlled the front court with precision to register a 21-17 21-15 win in a 39-minute quarterfinals clash at the Super 750 tournament.
“Yeah, it’s a big victory. Because we are world number 27 right now. Last year when we played Singapore, we were world No. 1. So, yeah, it feels really good that we could beat Goh and Izzuddin. Because we lost to them at the start of the year in the semifinals of India Open. So, sweet victory,” Chirag said. “Really happy with the way we played over the past couple of days. And looking forward to tomorrow now.”
Satwiksairaj and Chirag will next face third seeds Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik of Malaysia.
“We have played them before many times. We couldn’t capitalise in the India Open. But, we were well-prepared. We are more focusing on our strategy than the opponent’s strategy. We wanted to play our A game and see what they come up with,” said Satwik, who was down with health issues in April and had to miss the Sudirman Cup.
“We are not just thinking too much about the opponents. We are preparing ourselves every point in each and every point. We are supporting each other and it’s been a quiet two-month journey. So, really happy with the way we played and looking forward for more.”
This is their third semifinal appearance of the season, having reached the last-four stage at both the Malaysia and India Open earlier this year.
The last time the two played was in March at the All England Championships which ended with Chirag aggravating his back injury and the duo was forced to withdraw in the second round. “We didn’t really know how and if we will be able to play at Singapore because, frankly speaking, we just trained for 10 days in a span of two months,” he said.