Medal contenders Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty signalled their intention with an easy straight-game victory in their opening group stage badminton men’s doubles match after singles ace Lakshya Sen got his first Olympic campaign underway on a winning note on Saturday.
The third-seeded Satwik-Chirag, the reigning Asian Games champions, notched up a 21-17, 21-14 win at the Paris Games over the home pair of Lucas Corvee and Ronan Labar. Next up for them are Mark Lamsfuss and Marvin Seidel of Germany, on Monday.
Earlier, Lakshya beat Tokyo edition semi-finalist Kevin Cordon of Guatemala 21-8, 22-20 in a Group C contest.
Lakshya was error-prone in the second game, and trailed 7-12 at the change of ends. The Guatemalan was just one point away from taking the match to the deciding game but with Prakash Padukone, mentor for the Indian shuttlers, and Vimal Kumar guiding him from the court corner, Lakshya saved his best for the last and reeled off four straight points to level the scores 20-20, and then, won another two points to seal the match.
Later on Saturday, the women’s doubles pair of Tanisha Crasto and Ashwini Ponnappa lost 18-21, 10-21 to South Korea’s So Yeong Kim and Hee Yong Kong.
