'Nervous' Jonatan Christie ekes out first win of Paris 2024 Olympics
It was all a bit different from Tokyo 2020 for Jonatan Christie. Just a little.
Three years on from the first postponed Olympic Games in history encased in the Covid bubble, Christie, the No. 3 badminton men's singles seed from Indonesia, laboured in his first match of Paris 2024, a 2-1 win over unheralded Belgian Julien Carraggi on Saturday (27 July).
Porte de La Chapelle Arena was filled to the brim with fans, who were loud with the booming acoustics at the venue. All that and taking the Olympic court once again admittedly got to Christie, who dropped the opening frame before putting together a 18-21, 21-11, 21-16 victory over the unseeded Carraggi.
“When I went to the court I felt a little bit nervous,” Christie told Olympics.com. “The first game, it was not good enough for me - the strategy, my strokes. In the second and third set, I’m very happy with the way I handled it.”
Jonatan Christie got the job done on Saturday - the hard way.
Asked what threw him off early on in the 65-minute affair, his first head-to-head against Carraggi, Christie said, “I think the atmosphere and my expectations also. It’s really important because in the first game, I could not handle it.
“Yeah it affected me a little bit. This is the Olympics. I think every player wants to get the win like me.
“But the pressure - I really feel it. I think it’s not easy for me to handle it.”
The man they call Jo-Jo went out in the round of 16 in his Olympic debut in Tokyo - to the top seed in Paris, Shi Yu Qi - but is determined to have better luck here.
While he stopped short of uttering the word “medal,” Christie sounded like a man bound to vastly improve on his performance on Monday, when he takes on Tokyo 2020 fairytale semi-finalist Kevin Cordon of Guatemala, who on this day lost in straight sets to India’s Lakshya Sen 21-8, 22-20 in the other Group L contest.
“Physically, I feel good. No problem,” Christie said. “I just want to try every day, win every match. I must control the nerves, the expectations.
“Because when you go to the court, it’s really important to enjoy, to play comfortably.”