Paris 2024: PV Sindhu’s, Satwik-Chirag’s badminton dreams dashed

Paris: After PV Sindhu embraced He Bing Jiao at the net, she walked a few heavy steps towards Prakash Padukone and Agus Dwi Santoso with her head down. On the same courts of the Porte de la Chapelle Arena earlier on Thursday, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy smiled while congratulating the opponents across alongside Chirag Shetty.
Within a few hours of each other, India’s biggest medal hope from badminton, and the only two-time Olympic medallist going for her third, had been knocked out of the 2024 Paris Olympics.
For the second time in an Olympics, Satwik and Chirag have nothing to show after losing to Malaysians Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik 21-13, 14-21, 16-21 in the men’s doubles quarter-finals. For the first time in an Olympics, Sindhu, the 2016 Rio Games silver medallist and 2020 Tokyo Olympics bronze medallist, will return without a medal after losing to He Bing Jiao 21-19, 21-14 in the pre-quarters.
The only Indian alive, and truly kicking, in the badminton draw is a debutant. Lakshya Sen knocked out a physically exhausted HS Prannoy in an all-Indian singles pre-quarters 21-12, 21-6 to march on.
Sindhu would know how that feels — young and deep into an Olympics draw. She was there in Rio, and so was her fellow finalist Carolina Marin. She was also there in Tokyo, beating He for the bronze. To paint a picture of Sindhu’s physical and mental struggles coming into Paris eight years on, Marin, playing on the adjacent court the same time as Sindhu, rallied from a game down to advance into the quarters. And across the net, He ensured Tokyo seemed a long time ago.
“It’s sad,” Sindhu said, pausing. “The result which I couldn’t give. But that’s how the journey goes.”
Still smiling in it, Sindhu said Paris wasn’t meant to be for her, even though she tried everything she could to peak for it. On the day of her first real test here, however, He would scale well and over the Indian.
The last time they played, the Chinese swept the Indian away in straight games at the Hangzhou Asian Games last year. A starting statement of intent from Sindhu would’ve gone a long way here. It was He instead who was off to a 5-1 lead, keeping Sindhu to the back court. Sindhu won a couple of good points closer to the net and narrowed the gap, but a swift He smash kept her ahead at 11-8 in the first break.
Sindhu kept pegging back, and the Chinese kept feeling it. A service error by her made it 14-14 before a moment of hesitancy on the back line that had Sindhu pounce with a smash winner took it to 19-19. That’s when the world No. 9 showed her class and cranked it up. The next point, a smash, had Sindhu challenging from the floor and then the Chinese was up a game after an incredible rally and pick up shot.
The Chinese jumped turning around, and there was no looking back for her. So flattened was Sindhu after the first game that she hit a high, slow, straightforward smash long for 6-2 on the scoreboard. Soon, it stopped ticking. And so did Sindhu’s Olympic medal count with it.
For Satwik and Chirag, a weak netted return was how it all ended. At a stage where few saw coming, notwithstanding the unpredictability of men’s doubles badminton. At the Tokyo Games three years ago where they exited in the group stage, they were still a building pair. At the Paris Games, they were the former world No.1 third seeds who had graduated to lofty heights and carved an unparalleled path for Indian badminton.
They had a lot going for them coming into Paris too — big titles over the last couple of years; the feel of winning at this arena at this year’s BWF French Open; a rich two-title winning form this year even though it tailed off a bit towards the last couple of months with Satwik’s shoulder injury. And, after sailing through their group here, a rather favourable quarter-final draw in terms of recent match-up.
The world No. 3 Malaysian pair has a sizeable edge in the overall head-to-head record (8-3), but the Indians had their measure in the last three outings. Each of those three victories, including at the Asian Games in which Satwik and Chirag went all the way, were wrapped up in straight games.
The quarter-final began much the same way with Satwik and Chirag winning the first game 21-13, before it all unravelled for them. Up in the second game, they quickly went down 14-21 as the Malaysians did something they hadn’t in more than a year — take a game off the Indians. The decider was neck and neck around the change of ends, and the Indians also nudged ahead 14-11 as Chirag gestured animatedly towards coach Mathias Boe. But they were soon levelled, silenced and shown the door.
“They kept on playing really good in the 1-2-3-4 strokes, which we couldn’t handle well today,” Chirag said.
Especially in the crunch points at the business end, when the kind of shots they were making earlier were now errors. “When we are leading, when we are playing really confidently,” Chirag said. “It was a pressure mistake.”