Swiss Open badminton: Rankireddy-Shetty in men’s doubles semis

Basel (Switzerland), March 6 : Second seeds Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty of India rallied hard to beat Malaysians Ong Yew Sin and Teo Ee Yi 12-21, 21-19, 21-12 to enter men’s doubles semi-finals in the Swiss Open BWF World Tour Super 300 on Saturday.
The rivals have played against each other three times now, with the 13th ranked Indian duo winning their head-to-head encounters against the 13th ranked Malaysians twice. The Indians’ latest win came at the $140,000 prize money tournament at St. Jakobshalle Basel in Basel on Saturday.
Rankireddy and Shetty will now play sixth seeds Danish pair Kim Astrup and Anders Skaarup Rasmussen on Saturday.
On Friday, Olympic silver medallist P.V. Sindhu and Kidambi Srikanth had stormed into the women’s and men’s singles semi-finals, respectively.
Srikanth defeated Thailand’s Kantaphon Wangcharoen 21-19, 21-15 in 44 minutes in a quarterfinal match. The Indian will now play top seed Viktor Axelsen of Denmark in the semi-finals on Saturday.
Reigning world champion Sindhu beat fifth seed Thai Busanan Ongbamrungphan 21-16 23-21 in a quarterfinal match in 59 minutes. She will now clash with fourth seed Mia Blichfeldt of Denmark in the semi-finals.