Paris 2024 Olympics, Indian Badminton wrap: Lakshya Sen brushes past compatriot Prannoy, Satwik-Chirag knocked out

Lakshya Sen kept his chances of an Olympic medal alive by beating compatriot H.S. Prannoy in the men’s singles pre-quarterfinals but the country’s strong medal hopes, the men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, lost their last-eight encounter in badminton competitions at the Porte de La Chapell arena here on Thursday.

World No.13 Lakshya dispatched compatriot Prannoy, placed 22nd, 21-12, 21-6 in a one-sided match lasting 39 minutes.

Lakshya rode on some fine smashes and Prannoy’s mistakes to have a five-point cushion at the break and then built on it to take the first game.

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The 22-year-old Lakshya banked on his better fitness to unleash some unplayable shots while a tiring Prannoy, who was down with chikungunya infection a few weeks back, committed unforced errors before bowing out.

Lakshya, a World championships bronze medallist, will take on another Worlds medallist, Chinese Taipei’s Chou Tien-chen, ranked 11 ^th, in the quarterfinals.

“The next match against Chou will be tough,” said Lakshya.

Prannoy left, wiping his tears and thanking his team for pushing him to play.

Earlier, India got a jolt to its medal prospects with the ouster of World No.5 duo Satwik-Chirag.

The Malaysian World No.3 pair of Chia and Soh rallied to beat the Indians 13-21, 21-14, 21-16 in a 64-minute men’s doubles quarterfinal clash.

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Satwik and Chirag, who had won their last three engagements against Chia and Soh, looked like extending their record as they took off from 10-10 to pick up five straight points due to their fine placement and powerful smashes to win the first game comfortably.

Satwik-Chirag, who led 4-0, lost momentum as the Malaysians applied pressure. The neck-and-neck contest continued until the Indians erred, including hitting wide or into the net, and helped their rivals to make a comeback.

As Korean World champions Kang Min-hyuk and Seo Seung-jae fell to the Danish duo of Kim Astrup and Andres Rasmussen on the adjacent court and the large Danish crowd erupted in joy, the arena turned electrifying.

With their tail up, the Malaysians perhaps drew from the energy of the ambience. They put Satwik-Chirag under pressure by making them defend heavily, getting engaged in a few rallies and finding gaps to score points. The gripping game, in which the Indians fought back to lead 14-11, was nicely balanced until 16-16 before the Satwik-Chirag pair faltered a few times to see the end of the road.

“We should have been a little calmer in those situations. I think at 14-11, at a point or two, we got quite unlucky,” said Chirag.

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“We have dealt with big matches. It’s on the mental side not to take so much on to the court. Not to think like something extra special. We focused on that. We just wanted to give our 100 per cent. Quite disappointed that we couldn’t win a medal. There’s always the next time. We’ll introspect what needs to be done and we’ll come back stronger,” said Satwiksairaj, as the duo’s body language said they were trying to come to terms with their exit.