 "Lakshya Sen had defeated Kevin Cordon 21-8, 22-20 on Day 1 of the 2024 Paris Olympics. PTI")
Lakshya Sen’s comfortable victory over Kevin Cordon on Saturday turned out to be for nothing as the result was removed from the 2024 Paris Olympics records on Sunday following the latter’s withdrawal due to injury.
Sen began his maiden Olympic campaign on a confident note with a 21-8, 22-20 victory over the Guatemalan in their Group L clash in the badminton men’s singles competition.
Paris Olympics: News, schedule, medals tally and moreHowever, with Cordon pulling out of the Olympics with a left elbow injury, as per an announcement by the Badminton World Federation (BWF), Group L has effectively become a three-person group.
Which means world No 3 Jonatan Christie of Indonesia and Belgium’s Julien Carraggi will be playing two games each while Lakshya will be the only player in the group to play three matches, even if one of them no longer counts.
The second day of the 2024 Paris Olympics otherwise was a happy one for Indian shuttlers with two-time Olympic medallist PV Sindhu and Olympic debutant HS Prannoy beginning their campaigns with clinical victories.
Sindhu began her Paris Olympics campaign with a resounding win in straight games over Maldives’ Fathimath Abdul Razzaq in the women’s singles group stage match on Sunday (July 29).
The gulf of class between the two players was evident as Sindhu, who is going after a third Olympic medal, took just 29 minutes to register her first win over a lower-ranked opponent, 21-9 21-6 in Group M.
After a wobbly start laden with unforced errors, Sindhu assessed the conditions and took control of the proceedings, racing to a 11-4 lead.
The world No 111 Fathimath was no match for the former world champion who finished the first game in mere 13 minutes.
As It Happened | India at Paris Olympics, Day 2
The second game followed a similar pattern with Sindhu claiming the first four points to take an early lead.
However, Razzaq capitalised on Sindhu’s errors to reduce the deficit at 3-4. But it became a one-sided contest then on with the Indian reeling in six straight points.
In the end, Sindhu had as many as 14 match points but the world No 13 needed only one to seal the match.
The 10th seeded Indian, who won a silver medal at Rio 2016 and a bronze at Tokyo 2020, will take on World No 75 Kristin Kuuba of Estonia in her second group match on Wednesday.
Later in the day, Prannoy, making his maiden appearance at the Olympics at the age of 32, defeated Germany’s Fabian Roth in their Group K clash to start off on a winning note.
The 32-year-old from Kerala, who was down with chikungunya for almost two weeks ahead of the Paris Games, gave a good display of fitness and showed his mettle during the 21-18 21-12 win over Roth in a group K encounter that lasted 45 minutes.
He will next face Le Duc Phat of Vietnam on Wednesday in the second and final group match.
“When you’re in the winning side of it, I think it feels great. Yes, it started off a little patchy. I think the atmosphere is electric out there. So to kind of suddenly get into that tournament mode is not easy,” said Prannoy after his match.
“I think I’ve seen a lot of players struggling out there in the first matches. Yeah, but happy that I could kind of push through that first game and wrap it up in straight sets.”
Prannoy was tested by the world No. 82 Roth, who engaged the Indian in some quality rallies. After an initial duel, Roth was up 14-11 at one stage but an alert Prannoy upped the pace to make it 19-17.
A sharp smash gave him two game points and he converted them after his opponent erred at the net.
Prannoy, who had won bronze medals at the World Championships and the Asian Games last year, looked more at ease in the second game as he found his range and constructed the rallies well to move to 7-3.
Prannoy’s net game, attacking shots and deft touch helped him to move to 16-11 in a jiffy. A backhand stroke handed the Indian eight match points and he sealed the affair after Roth sprayed a shot wide.
With PTI inputs