Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty get comfortable group stage draw for Paris Olympics

The Paris 2024 Olympics badminton men's doubles group stage draw was held at the Badminton World Federation (BWF) headquarters in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on Monday. The initial group stage draw for all other events was held on Friday, as per a release by Olympics.com.

Satwik-Chirag, third in the badminton world rankings, were seeded and drawn in Group C. The two-time Commonwealth Games champions have been drawn alongside the Indonesian pair of Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Rian Ardianto.

World No. 6 Alfian-Ardianto is the only other badminton pair inside the top 10 to be placed in Group C.

Group C also includes world No. 31 Mark Lamsfuss and Marvin Seidel of Germany and the world No. 43 French pair of Lucas Corvee and Ronan Labar.

Satwik-Chirag have faced the Indonesian pair of Alfian-Ardianto on five occasions and have a favourable 3-2 head-to-head record against them. The last time these two pairs faced each other was at the Korea Open 2023, where the Indians won.

The reigning Asian Games champions are also unbeaten against their German and French group-stage opponents.

Two-time Olympic medallist PV Sindhu and India's top-ranked men's singles player HS Prannoy also got comfortable Paris 2024 Olympics group stage draws on Friday.

Sindhu will begin her Olympic campaign in Group M, while Prannoy got drawn in Group K. World No. 13 Sindhu and Prannoy, seeded 13th, comfortably outrank all the opponents in their respective groups, the release added.

Meanwhile, the unseeded Lakshya Sen will face world No 3 Jonatan Christie of Indonesia in Group L of the men's singles. The reigning All England champion has a 4-1 head-to-head record against Sen.

If Prannoy and Sen both win their respective groups, they will face each other in the round of 16.

In the women's doubles, Tanisha Crasto and Ashwini Ponnappa have been drawn in Group C where they will take on fourth-seeded Nami Matsuyama and Chiharu Shida of Japan. (ANI)