Indian men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty produced a brilliant show to conquer the world no. 3 pair of Yang Lee and Chi-Lin Wang of Chinese Taipei in a thrilling group A match to start their 2020 Tokyo Olympic campaign with a win on Saturday.

Chirag and Satwik, world no. 10, recorded a 21-16, 16-21, 27-25 win over third seeds Lee and Wang, who had claimed back-to-back titles at the Yonex Thailand Open, Toyota Thailand Open and BWF World Tour Finals earlier this year.

However, in the men’s singles group match, B Sai Praneeth, seeded 13th, suffered a 17-21, 15-21 loss to world number 47 Misha Zilberman of Israel. The match lasted 41 minutes.

The match between Satwik/Chirag and their Chinese Taipei opponents turned out to be an edge-of-the-seat thriller as it lasted an hour and six minutes.

The Indian duo burst into a 7-2 lead early on, before entering the break at 11-7. Satwik and Chirag continued to move ahead and eventually grabbed the opening game.

In the second game, it was Lee and Wang who converted most of the opportunities but the Indian duo managed to keep breathing down their neck at 8-10. After the interval, the Chinese duo changed gears and soon bounced back into the contest.

In the decider, the Indian pair enjoyed a slender 2-0 lead, which was quickly erased by their rivals. The two pairs moved neck-and-neck from there on till 10-10.

A net error by Satwik allowed the Chinese Taipei pair to held a one-point lead at the break.

Errors crept in for the Indians as their opponents led 17-14. A powerful smash was followed by a poor serve by Chirag but Satwik unleashed a smash to make it 15-18.

The Chinese Taipei duo then made it 20-20 before sending the shuttle long.

They grabbed a match point after levelling the match at 24-24. However, the next match point was grabbed by the Indian and then went on to win the match.

Earlier, Praneeth jeopardised his qualification to the knockout stage after going down to Zilberman.

Praneeth, a 2019 World Championship bronze medallist and now ranked 15th, will next face world number 29 Mark Caljouw of the Netherlands.