In the badminton men’s doubles competition at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, third-seeded Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty enjoy a reasonably easy draw. In this edition of the quadrennial sports extravaganza, one of India’s best gold medal bets is the former world number one combination.
In group C, together with the Indonesian duo of Muhammad Rian Ardianto and Fajar Alfian, are Satwik, 23, and Chirag, 27. The pair ranked sixth in the world will pose the greatest challenge to Satwik-Chirag within the group.
After a wild run over the last 12 months, Satwik and Chirag have fought Alfian and Ardianto five times already and have a 3-2 head-to-head record against them. The Indians prevailed at the Korea Open 2023, the last time these two pairs faced off.
Other than Satwik and Chirag, the only other top-10 pairing in Group C is Alfian-Ardianto. The world-ranked 31-ranked German combination of Mark Lamsfuss and Marvin Seidel, as well as the world-ranked 43-ranked French pair of Lucas Corvee and Ronan Labar, will also be up against Satwik-Chirag, the two-time gold medallists at the Commonwealth Games.
On Monday, July 15, the Badminton World Federation (BWF) headquarters in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia hosted the draw for the Paris 2024 doubles group stage. For all other events, the first group stage draw took place on Friday, July 12.
Friday was also scheduled for the men’s doubles draw, but it was postponed because of a Court of Arbitration of Sport (CAS) hearing concerning the draw’s number of pairings. After CAS ordered BWF to recommend to the International Olympic Committee that Corvee-Labar be included in the Paris Summer Games, the sport’s worldwide governing body was forced to postpone the draw.
The initial 16 pairs that qualified for the men’s doubles draw have been replaced with a revised 17-pair field thanks to the addition of the French pair.
