Paris, July 27
One of India's brightest medal hopes, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty registered a convincing 2-0 victory over home favourites Lucas Corvee-Ronan Labar in Group C of men's doubles badminton at the 33rd Olympic Games here on Saturday.
The Indian duo, given the nickname 'Sat-Chi', controlled the game throughout the match and despite a late charge by the French duo won the match easily. They took a 21-17 victory in the first game, surging ahead from 5-4 to open an 8-5 lead and then a 12-6 advantage to win the first game.
The Indian duo fought a bit in the second game before sealing the second game 21-14, wrapping up the match in 45 minutes at the La Chapelle Arena.
Satwik & Chirag will take on WR 31 German pair Lamsfuss/Seidel on Monday in their 2nd Group stage clash before taking on Indonesian pair of Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Rian Ardianto who are ranked seventh in the world.
Alongside the duo, men's singles player Lakshya Sen also started on the right foot, defeating Kevin Cordon of Guatemala 21-8, 22-20 in 42 minutes in a men's singles Group L match of badminton competition to make a winning start to the campaign.