India’s women’s doubles pairing in badminton Tanisha Crasto and Ashwini Ponnappa lost their second straight game in the Paris Olympics on Monday, 29 July. The duo did not stand a chance against 4th seed Japan’s Nami Matsuyama and Chiharu Shida. Despite their best efforts, the Indian duo lost 11-21, 12-21 in just 48 minutes. With two losses in a row, Crasto and Ponnappa are in the brink of getting knocked out of the tournament, unless a miracle happens and multiple results go there way.
Crasto and Ponnappa did not stand a chance against the Japanese pair from the very start of the match. The decade-old pairing of Nami and Chiharu dominated the game from the very start and tried to kill the point aggressively. This forced Crasto and Ponnappa to go on the defensive and play longer rallies, which meant that they failed to exert any pressure on the Japanese pair at all.
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The duo’s inexperience was also shown when they were caught out of position multiple times by the Japanese pair, who were not shy about hitting smashes on the body. Crasto and Ponnappa had very few moments where they were able to stitch a few points together with aggressive play in the front court, converting flat drives into sharp smashes, but there were not able to do the same consistently throughout the two games.
With the loss, Crasto and Ponnappa are now ranked three in Group C, with 0 points to their name after two matches. The group is led by Japan and then Korea, who have 4 points to their name after two matches. India are third followed by the Australian pairing of Angela-Setyana in fourth place. India have effectively been knocked out of the competition in the women’s doubles competition after Australia failed to beat Korea in their second match.
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