- SINGAPORE — India's top men's doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and
Chirag Shetty crashed out of the Singapore Open, losing the Malaysian combine
of Aaron Chia and Wooi Yik Soh in a semifinal clash on Saturday. The Indian duo
went down to the third-seeded Malaysian pair in three hard-fought games, 21-19,
10-21, 18-21, in a Court 1 battle that lasted over an hour.
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- Satwik-Chirag, who trail 2-10 in head-to-head to the
Malaysian pair, won the first game after winning five points in a row to take
the lead midway through the game. From 12-8, they maintained their upper hand
and went on to win from an 18-18 score. Their rivals took control of the second
game from the start, opening up a 4-0 lead and then extending it to 7-1. Though
the Indians tried their best for a comeback, Chia and Soh went on to win the
game 21-10 and levelled the scores.
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- In the decider, the Malaysians opened up a lead from 6-6 and
surged ahead 9-6. From 16-10, they extended the gap to 16-11, and though the
Indians fought back from 20-11 down and saved six match points to make it
20-18, the Malaysians eventually won the match 21-18 to seal victory.
Also read: Singapore Open: Satwik-Chirag decimate World No.1 Goh-Izzuddin to reach semis
- Though they lost the match, Satwik and Chirag saw a lot of
positives in their run to the semifinals here. "I think a lot of
positives. I think to come this far with the number of days we've trained and
the months we've had both professionally and personally, I think to get back
here and reach semis, I think we never really expected," said Chirag
Shetty after the match.
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- The Indian duo were especially stirred by their quarterfinal
win over the world No. 1 Malaysian pair of Goh Sze Fei and Nur Izzuddin.
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- "So I think plenty of positives because you always see
that, like as you go deeper into the event, you want to go and win the title.
But I think when I look back at the way whatever we faced over the past couple
of months, I think to come back here and reach the semis, I think it's a really
good start," he said.
