Lakshya Sen sails into quarters; Satwik-Chirag suffer heartbreak u

Title contenders Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty wilted under pressure to make a shock quarterfinal exit from men’s doubles competition before Lakshya Sen saw off a not-fully-fit HS Prannoy to move to the singles quarterfinals at the Paris Olympics, here Thursday.

Considered a big medal prospect, the third-seeded Indians won the opening game and led 14-11 in the decider but they couldn’t deal with the service variations from world number three Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik and made too many mistakes under pressure to make an unexpected exit from the Games.

Coming into the match with three successive wins in the last three meetings against their Malaysian rivals, Satwik and Chirag lost 21-13 14-21 16-21 in a tense quarter-final.

“In the end, we gave away quite a few easy points. A few lucky ones for them, where we didn’t really expect those serves. They kept poking us slightly. Towards the end, there were a couple of points that hit the net chord and a few onetwo errors (made the difference), “ Chirag said after the intense 64-minute match.

Aaron and Chia had defeated the Indians eight times on the trot before the Indians broke their winning streak but none would hurt more than Thursday’s loss that came on the world’s biggest stage.

Carrying a billion hope, Satwik and Chirag, the former world number one, bulldozed the Malaysians in the opening game but Aaron and Soh changed the tactics, playing a more flat-fast game.