Paris 2024 Olympics badminton: Chirag-Satwik make quarter-finals, Tanisha-Ashwini on the brink of exit
India’s Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy have qualified for the men’s doubles quarter-finals at the Paris 2024 Olympics badminton tournament on Monday.
They were supposed to face Mark Lamsfuss and Marvin Seidel of Germany. However, Lamsfuss’ injury forced the pair to withdraw from the Olympics, leading to the match getting cancelled.
The world No. 3 pair began their Paris 2024 campaign after beating 40th-ranked Lucas Corvee and Ronan Labar of France. Corvee and Labar lost to world No. 7 Muhammad Rian Ardianto and Fajar Alfian of Indonesia on Monday.
With two losses, the French pair has been eliminated and as a result, Chirag-Satwik and Ardianto-Alfian will finish inside the top two in Group C. The Indian and Indonesian pairs will face each other on Tuesday to decide the top spot in the group.
Meanwhile, Tanisha Crasto and Ashwini Ponnappa are at the brink of elimination from the women’s doubles event after suffering a 21-11, 21-12 loss to world No. 4 Nami Matsuyama and Chiharu Shida of Japan on Monday.
Currently fourth in Group C, the Indian pair suffered a 21-18, 21-10 loss to Kim So-yeong and Kong Hee-yong, ranked eighth, of the People’s Republic of Korea in their campaign opener.
World No. 19 Crasto-Ponnappa will take on Australia’s Setyana Mapasa and Angela Yu, ranked 26th, in their final group-stage match on Tuesday.
India’s Lakshya Sen, meanwhile, secured a 21-19, 21-14 win over Julien Carraggi of Belgium in the group stage match of the men’s singles event at La Chapelle Arena.
Sen, 18th in the world badminton rankings, was pushed hard in the first game and came from behind with a clinical performance towards the latter stages. He then outclassed world No. 52 Julien Carraggi in the second game to pick up a strong win.
Lakshya Sen began his Olympic campaign with a win over Kevin Cordon of Guatemala. However, Cordon withdrew from the tournament following an injury that led to the deletion of the previous result, making the match against Carraggi the Indian’s campaign opener.
The 22-year-old Sen is currently second in Group L behind Jonatan Christie of Indonesia.
Against Carraggi, Sen had a close first game as the duo jostled for early dominance. The Belgian led 11-8 at the halfway mark and held a three-point lead at 17-14 as well.
Lakshya then switched gears and came from behind to tie the score at 18-18. With the scoreboard reading 19-19, Sen proved decisive and secured two consecutive points to clinch the first game.
Having secured the first game by battling adversity, Sen began the second one with plenty of confidence. The Commonwealth Games champion led 8-2 at one point and had an 11-4 lead at the halfway mark.
With the score at 14-10, Sen won four points on the trot to extend his advantage before closing out the second game 21-14.
Sen will face world No. 3 Jonatan Christie of Indonesia in the final group stage match. Christie has a dominant 4-1 head-to-head record over Sen and the Indonesian has picked up two wins against his Indian opponent this year already.