Image Courtesy- India TV
India’s men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty made a stellar start to the Olympic badminton competition by defeating the world number three pair of Yang Lee and Chi-Lin Wang of Chinese Taipei in Group A. But on Saturday B. Sai Praneeth had to face defeat in the men’s singles in the Olympics 2020.
World number 10 pair, Chirag and Satwiksairaj, defeated world no. 3 by 21-16, 16-21, and 27-25. Earlier this year, Lee and Wang have claimed back-to-back titles, the pair has won the Yonex Thailand Open, Toyota Thailand Open, and the BWF World Tour Finals. However, in the men’s singles category, India’s No. 13 Praneeth, making his Olympic debut, lost in straight games to lower-ranked Misha Zilberman of Israel in his very first match.
Praneeth suffered a 17-21 and 15-21 loss in 41 minutes against the world number 47 in Group D. On the other hand, Satwiksairaj and Chirag, who have been training under Danish coach Mathias Boe for the past few months, displayed a good strategic game and kept their patience in the crucial moments to win the match that lasted one hour and nine minutes.
Satwik and Chirag will next take on Indonesia’s world number one pair of Marcus Fernaldi Gideon and Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo on Sunday. On the side in the men’s singles, World Championship 2019 bronze medalist and world number 15 Praneeth will now face world number 29 Mark Kazou of the Netherlands. In the first game, Praneeth took an 8-4 lead, but Zilberman turned the dice with five consecutive points.