The Indian badminton campaign at the 2024 Paris Olympics got off to a good start as Lakshya Sen and the men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Setty both won their respective matches at the La Chapelle Arena on Saturday.
Sen, who had made a late dash in the Race to Paris rankings to qualify for the Games, beat veteran Kevin Cordon 21-8, 22-20 in straight games.
Making his Olympic debut, the 22-year-old from Almora dominated proceedings right from the start in the opening game. He opened up a massive 11-2 lead at the mid-game interval and soon raced to pocket the first game 21-8 in just 14 minutes.
Cordon, a five-time Olympian, however fought back in the second game. With Sen seemingly struggling to counter the drift from the near end of the court, the Gautemala shuttler opened up an 11-6 lead at the mid-game interval.
Sen further trailed 10-16 and was later down by four game points at 16-20.
The Indian, though, staged a remarkable comeback from this point. He not only saved the four game points, but went on to win six consecutive points in a row to win the second game 22-20 and wrap up the match in 42 minutes.
Sen is now slated to face Julien Carraggi of Belgium in his second Group L match on Monday.
Satwik-Chirag win
Meanwhile, the men’s doubles third seeds Rankireddy and Shetty also registered a straight games 21-18, 21-14 against France’s Lucas Corvee and Ronan Labar.
The former world No 1 Indians were a bit scratchy in the opening game, but never really looked in any trouble despite the best efforts from the French pair.
Rankireddy and Shetty found ways to win points at crucial moments as they won the first game 21-18. The change of ends after the first game, however, put them at ease.
They dominated the second game right from the start to pocket it 21-14 and start off with a win in Paris.
Later in the day, the women’s doubles pair of Ashwini Ponnappa and Tanisha Crasto went down 18-21, 10-21 to Kim So Yeong and Kong Hee Yong of South Korea in their women’s doubles campaign opener.
Ponnappa and Crasto held their own in the opening game, not allowing the fourth seeds to race away. However, they struggled to counter the drift after the change of sides and looked a pale shadow of themselves.
All is not lost for the Indians though and they still have two more round robin matches left.
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