The star Indian men’s doubles duo of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty beat the current world no. 1 and second-seeded pair of Goh Sze Fei and Nur Izzuddin in straight games, 21-17, 21-15, to move into the semifinals of the Singapore Open on Friday. Making a comeback after fighting fitness problems for the last few weeks, Satwik and Chirag showed solid defence and controlled the front court with precision to register the victory over the Malaysian pair in a 39-minute encounter. Satwik and Chirag held a 6-2 head-to-head record against Goh and Izzuddin going into the encounter, although they had lost their most recent outing at the India Open in January. Injury. Sickness. Nothing could deter them. The boss duo is back in the Super Series semis! ? From Delhi to Singapore, the 750 comeback is real.#SatChi #BadmintonBosses #ComebackKings #SingaporeOpen2025 #badminton #BAI@himantabiswa @lakhaniarun1 @sanjay091968… pic.twitter.com/lBIatVIAls — BAI Media (@BAI_Media) May 30, 2025 The encounter started with two service faults in the first four points and featured small rallies as both the Indians and the Malaysians looked to pull off angled returns and attack at the earliest chance. As a result, the score moved from 1-all to 7-all before Satwik and Chirag bagged a three-point cushion at the mid-game break, with the former ruling the serve and third shots. Satwik and Chirag maintained the pressure to go up 15-11 before the former committed a service fault, and Izzuddin executed a jump smash to narrow the gap to 13-15. A ferocious forehand smash from Satwik pushed him and Chirag ahead at 18-15, and they soon wrapped the first game at 21-17, as Goh shot a service return into the net. Chirag made some mistakes initially in the second game, but he and Satwik did well to keep speed in the high-pace exchanges, with the score level at 6-all. Satwik and Chirag then scored four successive points before an unforced error paused their momentum. A body smash from Chirag forced a weak return from Izzuddin, that too into the net, handing the former and Satwik a crucial four-point lead at the mid-game break. A brilliant backhand at the net took Satwik and Chirag to 15-9 after the break. The former then sent down a brutal smash to make it 16-10. Though Satwik and Chirag committed some unforced errors, the former produced another aggressive return to earn five match points. Satwik and Chirag bagged the victory over the Malaysians after another mistake from their opponents. They will next face the third seeds and their long-time nemesis Malaysian duo of Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik, who hold a 9-3 win-loss record over the Indians. Chia and Soh had defeated Satwik and Chirag in the quarters of the Paris Olympics in a three-game thriller, which was their last encounter. (With PTI Inputs)