Lakshya Sen Enters Men's Singles Quarter-Finals In Paris Olympics, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty Bow Out

Lakshya Sen stayed on course for a maiden Olympic medal but Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty's dreams came crashing down after a heartbreaking three-game loss in the men's doubles quarterfinals at the badminton competition of the Paris Games in Paris on Thursday. One of the favourites for the gold medal, Satwik and Chirag, the reigning Asian Games champions and Commonwealth Games winners, squandered a first-game advantage to go down 21-13 14-21 16-21 in a hard-fought quarterfinal against world number 3 Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik of Malaysia.

Sen then brought some cheers back to the Indian camp after registering a comfortable 21-12 21-6 win over a tired-looking HS Prannoy in an all-Indian pre-quarterfinals contest to become only the third male player ever from the country to reach the round of 8 of the Olympics badminton competition.

The 22-year-old from Almora, a reigning Commonwealth Games champion and a 2021 World Championships bronze-medallist, joined Parupalli Kashyap and Kidambi Srikanth, who had reached the quarterfinals in the London and Rio edition of the Olympics in 2012 and 2016 respectively.

Currently ranked 22, Sen will face 12th seed Chinese Taipei's Chou Tien Chen in the quarterfinals.

"I think having tough matches gives you confidence. I am now ready to go deep into the tournament. It will be a tricky match against Chou, I have to go and recover well and give my 100 per cent," Sen said after the match.

Earlier, Indian badminton fans across the globe were in for a shock when title contenders Satwik and Chirag flattered to deceive during their 64-minute slugfest.

The Indians entered the contest after stitching three successive wins against the Malaysians in the last three meetings.

Aaron and Chia