India’s badminton squad began their Olympic campaign on Thursday with the women's doubles pair of Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa, losing 15-21 10-21 to the World No. 1 pair of Misaki Matsutomo and Ayaka Takahashi from Japan.
Gutta and Ponnappa lost the first set 15-21. The Japanese completely dominated proceedings, which left the Indian pair struggling to get a foothold in the match. In the second set, the Indians were outplayed in all departments and ended up losing 10-21.
The result was not very shocking for Gutta and Ponnappa as they were up against the world's top ranked team in women's doubles. However, they will have to up their game if they are to progress to the next round. The top two teams from each group advance to the quarterfinals.
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