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India’s Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy sealed qualification for the men’s doubles quarter-finals at the Paris Olympics 2024 badminton tournament. T he Indian pair were slated to take on Germany's Mark Lamsfuss and Marvin Seidel. But with Lamsfuss’ injury, the German pair withdrew from the Olympics and their match against India was cancelled.
The world No. 3 pair kick-started the Paris Olympics 2024 with a win over the French pair of Lucas Corvee and Ronan Labar. The 40th rank Corvee and Labar also lost to world No. 7 Muhammad Rian Ardianto and Fajar Alfian of Indonesia.
Satwik and Chirag become 1st Indian Pair to reach Olympic QFs
After these back-to-back defeats, the French pair were eliminated which sealed Chirag-Satwik's qualification for the quarterfinals. Further, the Indian pair and Ardianto-Alfian will finish inside the top two in Group C and face each other on Tuesday for the number one spot in the group.
Speaking on SatChi's opening game victory, India's national badminton coach, Pullela Gopichand praised the Indian pair for tackling the French crowd well. Speaking to Revsportz, Gopichand said, "I think it is always tricky and it is good to get the first day out with good wins. Satwik-Chirag against the French crowd also."
"I think it is important that they started off well and they kind of winded it up. Same was the case with Lakshya. I think he had a tricky second game but I think as Lakshya is always brilliant. He comes back strongly especially when he is down, he played fantastic," he continued.
