Indian pair Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty advanced to the quarterfinals at the Swiss Open in Basel after a 74-minute victory over Japan's Hiroki Okamura and Kyohei Yamashita. The match ended 21-15, 15-21, 28-26 in an epic deciding game. Tharun Mannepalli also progressed in men's singles by defeating Malaysia's Justin Hoh.
At the Swiss Open badminton tournament in Basel, the top-seeded Indian men's doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty secured their place in the quarterfinals on Thursday. They overcame a challenging Japanese duo, Hiroki Okamura and Kyohei Yamashita, in a thrilling three-game encounter that lasted 74 minutes. The scoreline read 21-15 in the first game, followed by a 15-21 loss in the second, before clinching the decider 28-26 after a tense battle where neither side held a two-point lead post 13-13.
In men's singles, Tharun Mannepalli advanced to the last eight with a straight-games win over Justin Hoh of Malaysia, 21-14, 22-20, in 43 minutes. He built a strong lead in the opener from 14-13 and, despite a comeback in the second game where Hoh equalized after trailing 13-7, saved a game point at 19-20 to prevail.
Looking ahead to Friday, Rankireddy and Shetty face Denmark's Christian Kjaer and Rasmus Kjaer in their first-ever matchup. Mannepalli is set to play Indonesian Anthony Sinisuka Ginting.
Other Indian players had mixed results. Kiran George exited in the pre-quarterfinals, losing to Hong Kong's Jason Gunawan 18-21, 21-16, 16-21 in 70 minutes after upsetting former world champion Loh Kean Yew earlier. In mixed doubles, Tanisha Crasto and Dhruv Kapila fell 15-21, 17-21 to China's Gao Jia Xuan and Wu Meng Ying. The men's doubles team of Hariharan Amsakarunan and M.R. Arjun lost 17-21, 11-21 to Chinese Taipei's Chen Cheng Kuan and Lin Bing-Wei in 32 minutes. Women's singles player Malvika Bansod was defeated 11-21, 15-21 by Thailand's Pornpawee Chochuwong, marking her fourth loss to the world No. 4.
