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Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty were the only Indians to compete in the Swiss Open Super 300. On Thursday, PV Sindhu, HS Prannoy, and Kidambi Srikanth were all eliminated in the second round of the Basel Open.
The Indian Men’s Doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty is set to compete for a spot in the semifinals of the Swiss Open. Second-seeded Jeppe Bay and Lasse Molhede of Denmark will be their opponents. In three games, Chirag and Satwik defeated Chinese Taipei’s Lee Fang-chih and Lee Fang-Jen. In their previous round, the Danish duo defeated Algeria’s Mammeri-Medel duo in straight sets. Tomorrow, the match will begin at 12.30 AM IST.
A 20-year-old Indonesian, Putri Kusuma Wardani, part of the gold medal-winning team at the 2022 Asia Team Championships, defeated Sindhu (15-21 21-12 18-21).
It was a see-saw battle that saw Sindhu lose the opening game 15-21 before winning the second game 21-12 despite being tied 10-10 at the end of the first game. After Wardani took a 15-6 lead in the third game, Sindhu fought back to make it 20-18. Still, the youngster persevered and won the game and the final point.
World No. 9 and fifth seed H S Prannoy exited the Swiss Open Super 300 badminton tournament in the second round after losing to unseeded Christo Popov of France. Despite being a favourite coming into the match after defeating Shi Yu Qi of China in the previous game, Praannoy looked a pale shadow of himself against the world number one. Popov failed to fight, losing 8-21, 8-21 and withdrawing from the men’s singles competition.