Paris Olympics is all set to commence on July 26 with a glittering opening ceremony at Seine river. A few sporting events, however, will get underway prior itself while Badminton matches will be played from July 27. Among the 117-member Indian contingent, seven are set to reprsent India in Badminton at the Summer Games with PV Sindhu being the only player to have won a medal before.
In fact, Sindhu has won two medal at the Olympics - Silver at 2016 Rio and Bronze at 2020 Tokyo. She will be eying her third medal this time around and will be hoping to put all her experience to use to get the better of some of the best players across the world. She is the only female athlete to feature in Women's single in Badminton for India as the duo Tanisha Crasto and Ashwini Ponappa will be competing in Women's doubles.
Among men, HS Prannoy and Lakshya Sen will be competing in men's singles while the third-seeded duo of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty will feature in men's doubles. There are a lot of hopes from the Satwik-Chirag duo who are ranked three in the world and many are expecting them to win a medal for the country.
Who are the opponents of India's Badminton players at Paris Olympics?
Satwik and Chirag have been drawn in group C and will face - world no.6 Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Rian Ardianto of Indonesia, Mark Lamsfuss and Marvin Seidel of Germany and Lucas Corvee and Ronan Labar of France.
PV Sindhu has been slotted in group M alongside Kristin Kuuba (Estonia), Fathimath Nabaaha Abdul Razzaq (Maldives) in the group stage.
Tanish Crasto and Ashwini Ponappa will lock horns against Nami Matstuyama-Chiharu Shida (Japan), Kim So Yeong-Kong Hee Yong (South Korea), Setyana Mapasa-Angela Wu (Australia) in the group stage.
In Men's Singles, HS Prannoy will be up against Le Duc Phat (Vietnam), Fabian Roth (Germany) in Group K while Lakshya Sen will be challenged by Jonatan Christie (Indonesia), Kevin Cordon (Guatemala), Julien Carraggi (Belgium) in Group L.
