PV Sindhu will try to create new history in Indian sports by winning her third consecutive medal.

Paris Olympic 2024 News: Star Indian pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty will start as strong contenders for the gold medal in the men's doubles badminton competition at the Olympics starting on Saturday while PV Sindhu will try to create new history in Indian sports by winning her third consecutive medal.

PV Sindhu won silver and bronze medals in the last two Olympic Games and to complete a hat-trick in Paris, she will have to use her experience of playing in big tournaments well. As far as Satwik and Chirag are concerned, Paris has proved lucky for them. They won the men's doubles title at the French Open this year.

This could be the last Olympics for Ashwini Ponnappa. She will present the Indian challenge in the women's doubles along with Tanisha Crasto. In the men's singles, HS Prannoy and Lakshya will also present their challenge in the Olympic Games for the first time. Both of them have also made the medal their target. However, only one of these two can win the medal because after progressing from the group stage, both these players will face each other in the pre-quarterfinals.

India's singles players had a volatile performance before the Olympics, but Satwik and Chirag performed brilliantly in the men's doubles. This year they have reached the finals of four competitions and won two titles.

Satwik and Chirag have been seeded third and have been placed in Group C along with Indonesia's reigning All England champions Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Rian Ardianto, Germany's Mark Lamsfuss and Marvin Seidel and France's Lucas Corvee and Ronan Labarre.

Sindhu's form has not been good before the Olympics but she has practiced hard for the last few months under the supervision of Prakash Padukone and is committed to complete a hat-trick of Olympic medals.

Players like An Se Young, Chen Yu Fei, Tai Tzu Ying and Carolina Marin can become obstacles in Sindhu's path to a medal but it should not be forgotten that Indian players have been performing well in big competitions.

In the group stage, she will face world number 75 Kristin Kuba of Estonia and world number 111 Fatima Razzaq of Maldives. In the knockout stage, she may face two Chinese players – He Bingjiao and Olympic champion Chen Yu Fei.

Lakshya has not been given any seed in the men's singles. He will face third seed Jonatan Christie of Indonesia in his group who has a 4-1 record against the Indian player. Lakshya will also have to defeat Kevin Cordon and Julien Caragy of Belgium to reach the knockout stage.

Prannoy has been placed in Group K along with lower ranked players like Vietnam's Le Duc Phat and Germany's Fabian Roth. He should have no problem advancing.

Ashwini and Tanisha have been placed in Group C along with fourth seeded Japanese pair Chiharu Shida and Nami Matsuyama and South Koreans Kim So Yeong and Kong Hee Yong, who may pose a tough challenge to them. Australia's Setiana Mapasa and Angela Yu are also in this group. (pti)

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