Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty saved seven match points before crashing out in the semifinals of the Singapore Open BWF Super-750 tournament on Saturday.
Despite a valiant effort towards the end of the third game, the Indians lost 21-19, 10- 21, 18-21 to Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik of Malaysia. This was the 10th victory for the Malaysians in 13 meetings. They also beat the Indians at the Paris Olympics last August. The Malaysians reached their third final in three weeks. They won the Thailand Open and lost the Malaysia Masters last week.
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Playing their third semifinal of the year, Satwik-Chirag were aggressive in the first game. The Indians led 11-8 at the break and increased the lead to 14-10. Employing a strategy that helped them win in Olympics, Aaron and Soh succeeded in keeping the shuttle flat and close to the net. This disturbed the rhythm of the Indian duo and the Malaysians levelled at 18-18. At this stage, Soh hit the shuttle long and smashed the next one into the net, giving two valuable points to the Indians as they won the first game.
The Indians were a bit lax in the second game.
It was a close affair till 6-6 in the third game. At this stage, the Malaysians secured four straight points and went up 11-7. At 20-11 when it looked all was over, the Indians saved seven match points before Soh managed to secure a smash winner, to the relief of the Malaysians
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