Olympics 2024: Satwik-Chirag reach quarterfinals as unbeaten group winners

Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty progressed to the quarterfinals as unbeaten Group C champions on Tuesday.

The Indian pair delivered a clinical performance and made light work of World No. 7 Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Rian Ardianto to top Group C in 38 minutes at La Chapelle Arena.

Satwik and Chirag defeated Fajar and Ardianto (21-13, 21-13) for the fourth successive time across all competitions.

India's strongest medal hope in badminton at Paris 2024, Satwik and Chirag, took on the Indonesians in the group topper deciding clash after a day break with the German duo of Mark Lamsfub and Marvin Seidel withdrawing from the Olympics due to an injury concern.

In a highly intense game, Satwik and Chirag displayed their extensive reach, deft placement and ability to dictate the pace of the rally.

While Chirag dazzled with his superb footwork, Satwik showed his game awareness with great strokes from the net and his ability to finish faster exchanges with his magnificent net play.

Satwik and Chirag broke into an 11-8 lead in the opening game, putting up the rallies flat and fast. Their relentless retrievals and pulling the pressure away frustrated the Indonesian duo.

For the game point, Satwik went for a jump smash, splitting Fajar and Ardianto's defence.

The second game was a close affair, with the lead-changing side in every rally, but the Indian pair pulled away with an 11-8 at the interval.

The Indonesians did challenge the Indians with their drop shots and clever net play. But they could not stop the Indians from collecting points.

The Indians gradually collected more points in a row with the deft placement of the shuttle. As the India pair's advantage widened, Fajar and Ardianto's frustration grew more.

Though they managed to trouble the Indians on a few occasions with hard smashes, it was enough for them to make a turnaround.

As the Indonesians were still three points behind, Satwik and Chirag went on a four-point spree with a skilful return displaying his agility.

Satwik would fetch the game point with a flat smash to the backcourt. On the game point, Alfian committed a mistake by playing the shuttle into the net to give the Indians a straight game win.

With this win, Satwik-Chirag ended their group-stage campaign as unbeaten champions.

Meanwhile, in the women's doubles clash, Tanisha Crasto and Ashwini Ponnappa ended their campaign with their third straight loss.

On Tuesday, they suffered a straight-game defeat to the lower-ranked Australian pairing of Setyana Mapasa and Angela Yu 15-21, 10-21. Tanisha and Ashwini exited the Olympics as the bottom-placed pair in Group C.