India's ace badminton pair Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty suffered a shock exit at the Paris Olympics 2024 on Thursday. Satwik-Chirag duo was defeated by Malaysia's unseeded Soh Wooi Yik and Chia Aaron in the men's doubles quarter-final by 21-13, 14-21, 16-21 to miss out on the top-four round.
This is India's joint-best achievement in men's badminton record at Summer Olympic Games. The former world no.6 Parupalli Kashyap held the previous best achievement for India at the Olympics when he reached the men's singles quarter-finals at the London Games in 2012.
Satwik-Chirag, the world no.1 pair, started their match with a dominant performance and overpowered the Malaysian duo to easily take the opening set by 21-13. But Soh Wooi Yik and Chia Aaron made a stunning comeback to win the second set by 21-14 and took the match to the third and decider set.
In the third set, the Malaysian pair took an early 5-3 lead but Chirag displayed his best to turn the tables. The Indian duo was the first to reach 10 in the third set but the Malaysian pair kept the gap short as possible throughout the decider. Satwiksairaj and Chirag struggled for return serves and lost the third set 16-21. The Malaysian pair will be facing the world no.1 pair Liang Wei Keng and Wang Chang in the semi-final clash.
Meanwhile, Indian shuttles are enjoying a strong campaign at the Paris Games with PV Sindhu, HS Prannoy and Lakshya Sen hunting medals. Prannoy and Lakshya will be facing each other in the men's singles round of 16 clash while the two-time Olympic medalist PV Sindhu takes on He Bingjiao of China in the women's singles round of 16 later on Thursday.
The Indian contingent has registered just three medals at the Summer Games with Sindhu clinching silver in the Rio Olympics 2016 and bronze in the Tokyo Games 2020, both in women's singles. Saina Nehwal was the first badminton player to win a medal for India when she clinched a bronze in the 2012 London Games.
