Goodbye to Paris

Rohit Mahajan in Paris

Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, India’s strongest bet in badminton, crashed out in the quarterfinals of the men’s doubles event, beaten 21-13 14-21 16-21 by Malaysia’s Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik.
It would be fair to say that the Indians cracked under pressure — they admitted as much later. Rankireddy and Shetty had lost eight matches in a row to the Malaysians, who won bronze at the Tokyo Olympics and then became the world champions in 2022; the tables were turned, however, and Sat-Chi beat Chia and Soh three times in a row, including in the semifinals at last year’s Asian Games.
But today, at the biggest stage, the Indians cracked, tactically and mentally; the Malaysians raised their game, altered their tactics.
It seemed that it was the Indians’ match to lose, after they took the first game 21-13.
The second game onward, the Malaysians started hitting flatter and flatter — this denied the Indians the soaring shuttles, which both Shetty and Rankireddy are adept at smashing at the feet of their opponents.
Chia and Soh had a slender lead, 11-10, in the second game; they then took charge, hitting flat, dictating play at the net, denying the Indians the opportunity to smash.
Both Shetty and Rankireddy seemed to get desperate — as the points became difficult to get, their eyes lit up every time they thought they had got a smashable serve, and again and again they smashed the shuttle into the net. They failed to slow down the game and, instead, got locked into flat, superfast rallies that ended more often in the favour of the Malaysians than them.
They lost the second game by a big margin, but started well in the third, up 4-0 and then 14-11. Then, their game simply broke down.
Minutes after the disaster was complete, they came over to discuss the match with the media — their faces, shocked and ashen, mirrored their emotions of shock and awe.
“Till 14-11, I think we were playing quite well,” said Shetty of the third game disintegration. “In the end, we gave away quite a few easy points… Should have been a little calmer.”
Pouncing at the opponents’ serve, they often hit into the net. “It depends on the situation,” said Rankireddy. “When we were leading in the first game, we didn’t miss those. When we’re confident, we don’t miss those. So, those were pressure mistakes… caused by pressure.”
Did the pressure get to them? “All games at the Olympics are high pressure games,” Shetty said. “But yes, it’s a pressure situation, because we were going to the medal round.”
The Indians’ strength is to finish the point early — in up to four strokes, said Rankireddy. “We tend to lose on the next eight strokes, in defence and so on. But today, kudos to them, they played really well on the first four strokes.”
“We got confidence in the middle of the second game,” said Chia. “There were quite a few unforced errors from them after that. We put pressure on them on the first few shots of rallies.”
Sat-Chi spoke about the future — there’s always the next time, we’d have the LA Games, they said. But the hurt of Paris, the expression on their faces showed, would never go away.

No second encore for Sindhu
There won’t be a second encore, a third Olympics medal in a row, for PV Sindhu, India’s greatest badminton player. The 29-year-old, made to look sluggish by the fleet-footed He Bingjiao of China, crashed out in the pre-quareterfinals of the women’s singles tonight, He winning 21-19 21-13. The Indian could play well only in patches, while He kept a tight grip over the match with her consistent attack. The unending unforced errors cost Sindhu dear.

Sen beats Prannoy, lone Indian shuttler standing
HS Prannoy hid his face in his towel — he didn’t speak for a full minute, he hid his tears in the towel, gulped, composed himself, and then talked. “The last 20-25 days were pretty tough,” he said, having lost his pre-quarterfinal match to his India teammate, Lakshya Sen. The scoreline was terrible for him, a 21-12 21-6 win for Sen. Sen toyed with Prannoy, a World Championships bronze medallist. Prannoy was clearly far below his best, feeling the effects of debilitating Chikungunya infection, which caused him to be hospitalised days before the Olympics. “Both emotionally and physically, I’ve had tough days,” he said, gulping and fighting back his tears. “I had just about a week to prepare and train. I knew it was going to be tough here. My team (coaches) kept pushing me…” So, Sen still has a shot at a medal while for the luckless Prannoy, who played the Hangzhou Asian Games semifinal with an injury and lost, it’s more tears and sadness.