India at Olympics 2024 Day 5 Highlights: Prannoy wins to set up Lakshya Sen clash; Manika Batra, Sreeja Akula ousted (2024)

Just look at what those three gold medals from leon Marchand have done for the hosts France. Also, pay attention to the American team in the standings.

India at Paris Olympics 2024, Day 6 schedule: Swapnil Kusale in 3P rifle final, massive test for Nikhat Zareen; knockout begins in badminton

Thursday will determine to a large extent if Indian badminton's medal run can continue at the Olympics. A massive day for the shuttlers. First up, in a blockbuster men's doubles quarterfinal, familiar foes Satwik-Chirag will take on Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik of Malaysia. A couple of matches later in that session, it's a highly-anticipated all-Indian clash between Lakshya Sen and HS Prannoy, which guarantees at least one Indian singles player in the quarterfinals stage. And later in the night, rematch of the Tokyo 2020 bronze medal match between PV Sindhu and He Bing Jiao of China.

Men's doubles QF: Satwik-Chirag vs Chia Soh (4.30pm IST)
Men's singles R16: Lakshya Sen vs HS Prannoy (Around 5.40 pm IST)
Women's singles R16: PV Sindhu vs He Bing Jiao (TBD, Session starts 10pm IST onwards)

Vinayakk Mohanarangan on Nishant Dev

Boxing, Men's 71kg R16:Nishant Dev into the quarterfinals and you know that that means of course, he is one win away from a place on the podium. That was not the cleanest of bouts though. He was happy to almost lose the last round, didn’t really land much and drops it 1-4. But it is enough for a 3-2 win on the overall card.

Boxing, Men's 71kg R16:

A very active round from both boxers it must be said. Neither one willing to sit back, wait and watch. And for evidently landing a few more accurate punches, Nishant gets the round on four out of the five cards, a 4-1 for the Indian.

She's World No. 1 for a reason. Sun Yingsha saves four game points to win the first game against Sreeja Akula. It's heartbreaking for the birthday girl Sreeja who looked comfortable at 10-6 but Yinghsa just upped her game when her chips were down.

Yinghsa is finding it difficult to match Sreeja's forehand topspin and maybe the Indian would do well to work on that.

Will we see another upset of a table tennis World No. 1 at the Paris Olympics today? Sreeja Akula takes on World No. 1 Sun Yingsha in her Rd of 16 clash. Earlier in the day, in the men's singles Rd of 32, World No. 23 Truls Moregard stunned World No. 1 Wang Chuqin.

Though they've not faced each other yet, Sreeja, who's India's top-ranked player, knows more than a thing or two about Yingsha. She was part of the team when Ayhika Mukherjee stunned the Chinese paddler at the ITTF World Team Championships earlier this year. Sreeja too beat then World No. 2 Wang Yidi in her singles match which was a historic day for Indian table tennis.

If Sreeja, who plays with pimpled rubber on her backhand, can make inroads and fox Yingsha with her long pips, it promises to be a fascinating encounter.

(By Anil Dias)

The Indian shuttler was in some trouble after dropping the first game. But manages to brush aside the Vietnamese opponent with a 16-21, 21-11, 21-12.

His reward for that win? A showdown against compatriot Lakshya Sen in a Round of 16 encounter.

As the finish line of this game starts to appear on the horizon, Prannoy is starting to accelerate. He's reached 15-9 in the third deciding game. Six more points.

A win today and Prannoy seals a royal rumble against compatriot Lakshya Sen.

There's Lakshya Sen's dazzling defense. But there was this Prannoy plod - at least 8 low retrieves along the front back diagonal. Prannoy was really tested, and rewarded with the point at 9-8.

Luc Phat gets strangely tangled within his own limbs. Twice he's swatted at blind shots.

HSP takes narrow 11-8 lead.

With the match deadlocked at 8-8 in the third game, both players slug it out in a massive rally that finally goes in Prannoy's favour when the Vietnamese shuttler sends the bird wide. The Indian shuttler edges ahead 9-8 in the deciding third game. That was surely the rally of the match so far.

The Vietnamese is taking plenty of chances in this match. He's hit some really sharp cross court dribbles on the net and pushes.

But Prannoy is up to the task. He manages to extend his lead and reach 11-8 in the third game.

HS Prannoy in trouble dropping the first set 21-16 to Vietnamese Le Duc Phat. Slow starts have been Prannoy's bane, but he's looked stiff in his movements and on the cross smashes from the back lacking in power. The Vietnamese is quick, but it could well be the side of the court that dictated scores. Prannoy not finding lengths is rare. Him not suddenly turning it around with a burst of movement when looking down and out, is rarer still. But a set down can be mentally tough to grapple with.

India would want him to progress so that chance of an Indian in quarters is 100 percent. If it's just Lakshya Sen, that's halved. But also, for the hardworking HSP, he deserves a stab at the Oly KOs.

Duc Phat isn't going away though. Tough one this. Prannoy up 8-5 in second.

Parupalli Kashyap, in the Jio commentary, says that Prannoy seems a little confused by the conditions.

For now, Prannoy is chasing this game after losing the first game 16-21 in 21 minutes.

The Vietnamese player, Le Duc Phat, has never played a tournament above the Challenger level. But he's holding his own exceptionally well agianst Prannoy.

Prannoy's pace seems off so far, says Parupalli Kashyap in the commentary.

The Indian shuttler is trailing 9-11. His shots don't seem to have power in them, and the Vietnamese player Le Duc is not finding it difficult to return the shuttle.

Prannoy is getting a pep talk from Gopichand and RMV Gurusaidutt at the interval.

On the Hindi commentary, former Olympian Parupalli Kashyap says that HS Prannoy's coach didn't have access to Le Duc's videos in France. So he shot a video of the Vietnam player's last match from YouTube on his phone and sent the clip across.

Jugaad!

From a 1-3 deficit, Prannoy races away to a 4-3 lead in the blink of an eye. The Indian is still showing some signs of shrugging off the full effects of the Chikungunya virus that he had contracted not too long ago before coming to Paris.

If he wins today, Prannoy meets compatriot Lakshya Sen in the next round.

Lakshya Sen on getting out of a tough group:

"It was a tough group and I was ready to fight every match. All the matches were really tough and I had to be at my best from day one so I think happy with the way the momentum is going and would love to continue it. It feels good to beat the world No 4, it gives you a lot of confidence to go into the tournament. Last few matches I haven't done well against him, the matches have been close, I've played well ,but I've not closed out in the matches. So happy with the win and the revenge. The way the match went today, gives me a lot of confidence going forward and now it's the time to look back, take few good things from the match for whatever I can improve on and come back fresh, and perform my best. The way I prepared for this tournament was really good and to be at 100% from day one, that was the plan."

Lakshya Sen on his training stint (long back) with Axelsen:

"I went there long back (to train with Viktor) and it has helped me grow as a player. We keep training together at times and yeah I learned a lot from him."

Lakshya Sen on how he bounced back today in his match against Jonathan Christie:

"He started really well with his attacking game and it took me 5-6 points to figure out what he's doing, He was trying to just pin me at the back and just because he was on the slow side he was just trying to play fast. Quickly I could figure it out and come back in the beginning. From then it was just a matter of keeping that 1 or 2 point lead and then closing out the first game. Then second game I looked much more in control and yeah, overall happy with the way I did."

The day so far has seen plenty of milestones for Indian athletes at Paris 2024.

• Table Tennis: Sreeja Akula became only the second Indian ever to progress to the Women's Single's round of 16 event
• Badminton: Lakshya Sen won his match against World Rank 3 Jonatan Christie to progress to knockout stages of the event. While our double Olympic medalist PV Sindhu defeated Kristin Kuuba of Estonia to progress of the knockout stages in the women's singles event
• 
  Shooting: In Men's Rifle 3 Position event, debutant Swapnil Kusale qualified for the final and will compete for a medal tomorrow. He is first Indian ever to qualify for the Olympic finals in 3P event
• Archery: Women's individual event veteran Deepika Kumari won her match against Quinty Roeffen to progress to 1/8 elimination round
• Boxing: Tokyo Olympics medalist boxer Lovlina progressed to the Quarterfinals of Women's 75kg event and now is just one win away from getting a medal

Shashank Nair writes: Anthony Ginting is out of the Paris Olympics! Indonesia will not have a men's single representative in the Round of 16 after home favourite Toma Junior Popov takes down the WR 9 and Lakshya Sen had earlier beaten Jonathan Christie.

The Popov brothers were working with Sen ahead of the Olympics and Toma survived an 85-minute marathon three-setter... Almost as if Sen handled the Indonesian men's singles program by himself.

Viktor Axelsen chimed in on the support Toma was getting at the Porte de La Chapelle arena, and said, 'Ginting playing Popov in France is facing a similar situation from a crowd perspective, as when playing Ginting in Istora.'

To this, Vinayakk Mohanarangan adds:

As a little interesting side note to what Shashank Nair said about Ginting and Christie both bowing out in the group stage, their opponents have something in common too. Before the Olympics, Lakshya made a pitstop in France where he trained at The Halle des Sports Parsemain from July 8 to 21 along with the Olympics-bound Popov brothers, Christo and Toma Junior. The similarities are aplenty between the Sens and Popovs. Brothers who play badminton (Lakshya’s brother Chirag is the national champion now), coached by the fathers (DK Sen and Thomas Popov), and a similar age group. And today, Sen and Toma Junior have each ended the Indonesians’ dreams of a singles medal.

The veteran Tarundaap Rai, who has a 28-year-long career in archery, has lost against Great Britain's Tom Hall by a margin of 6-4.

The final set is drawn, which means both archer will split points. And Tarundeep's race in the individual archery event at Paris 2024 is cut short.

What a career he has had since picking up archery in 1997 in his hometown of Namchi!

Paris 2024 is his fourth Olympic Games (Athens 2004, London 2012, Tokyo 2020).

Tom Hall needed a nine to draw that fourth set. He hits a 10 to win the set and race to a 5-3 lead.

The three arrows from both archers in Set 4

Tarundeep Rai: 9, 10, 9

Tom Hall: 9, 10, 10

Tarundeep Rai races back in this matchto win the third set and draw level at 3-3.

He had hit five nines in a row. But ended that streak magnificently with a 10 in the second arrow of his third set. That was enough for him to claim a win.

The three arrows from both archers in Set 3

Tarundeep Rai: 9, 10, 9

Tom Hall: 8, 9, 8

Tarundeep Rai and Tom Hall split set points in the first set. Both archers hit a score of 27.

But the Great Britain archer races ahead after winning the second set.

The three arrows from both archers in Set 1

Tarundeep Rai: 8, 10, 9

Tom hall: 8, 10, 9

The three arrows from both archers in Set 2

Tarundeep Rai: 9, 9, 9

Tom hall: 9, 9, 10

Manika knocked out of the women's singles in the Rod of 16, losing 1-4 to Miu Hirano. The Japanese, who has now beaten Manika on all 5 occasions, executed her plan to perfection. She didn't give Manika time to twiddle, and matched her forehand topspins. Hirano even attacked Manika's backhand and the Indian didn't have any answers.

She may be out, but it's still a historic achievement from Manika, becoming the first Indian to reach the Rd of 16 at the Olympics.

Manika Batra's history-making run at Paris Olympics comes to an end after she loses 6-11, 9-11, 14-12, 8-11, 6-11 in a 47-minute encounter against Japan's Miu.

After making history by becoming the first Indian paddler to reach the Round of 16 at an Olympics, Manika Batra is eliminated from the singles event. But her journey in Paris is not done yet! She will be seen in the women's team events soon.

Manika in trouble after losing the fourth game to give Hirano a 3-1 lead in the match. Manika now needs to win all the remaining three games to make it to the quarterfinals.

Hirano smartly took a timeout when Manika was fighting back at 5-6. That timeout broke Manika's rhythm and Hirano took the game.

How much will Manika regret that second game, where she held a 6-2 lead but lost that game?

The Indian's now trailing 1-3 after Miu claims the fourth game to stem the flow of blood after the Indian had won the third game.

Manika 1-3 Miu

Manika pulls one game in a see-saw battle of a third game. At one point Manika was leading 7-2 before Hirano fought back. The Japanese then had 3 game points which Manika saved to give herself a chance in this match.

Manika's not twiddling, but attacking with her long pips. It's confusing Hirano but Manika needs to do it more confidently. Important 4th game next.

Manika Batra once again had raced to a handsome lead in the third game, before Miu caught up with her. Then, Miu reached game point. Manika saves. This happens two more times, before Manika finally gets to game point herself. And she converts!

Manika 1-2 Miu

This is unfortunate for Manika Batra as she goes two games down to Miu Hirano.

She was leading 6-2 in the second game but allowed the Japanese to claw her way back. She's not twiddling as much. Maybe a tad nervous. It's also difficult to twiddle when Hirano is playing so fast. Manika needs to win the third to give herself a chance in this match

Miu keeping pressure on Manika.

Miu Hirano has changed her strategy very well. In the first game, she was hitting a majority of her shots on the backhand of Manika. Now in the second game, most of the shots are on the forehand side.

Manika had raced to a lead in this second game, but the Japanese paddler caught up at 6-6. Both paddlers went neck-to-neck in this round of 16 clash till 9-9 before Miu sealed the game.

In what will be her biggest test at this Olympics so far, India's Golden Girl Manika Batra will take on World No. 13 Miu Hirano of Japan.
They've faced each other a total of four times with the Japanese winning all four -- the last one coming at the 2023 WTT Contender in Lima. Head-to-head can be tossed out of the window at the Olympics and with Manika looking extremely confident, anything is possible.

We've seen one of the greatest table tennis upsets at the Paris Olympics earlier today as World No. 23 Truls Moregard beat World No. 1 Wang Chuqin. Apparently, Chuqin said that the Swede had changed his serve which confused him and that's why he lost.
With her pimpled rubber, Manika can really switch it up, so anything is possible!

(From Anil Dias)

On Day 5 of the Olympics, India has had a very memorable day:

> Table Tennis: Sreeja Akula became only the second Indian ever to progress to Women's Singles round of 16 event

> Badminton: Lakshya Sen won his match against World No 3 Jonatan Christie to progress to knockout stages of the event.

> Shooting: In Men's Rifle 3 Position event, debutant Swapnil Kusale qualified for the final and will compete for a medal tomorrow.

> Archery: In Women's individual event veteran Deepika Kumari won her match against Quinty Roeffen to progress to 1/8 elimination round

> Boxing: Tokyo Olympics medalist boxer Lovlina progressed to the quarterfinals of women's 75kg event and now is just one win away from getting a medal.

Dhiraj Bommadevara was eliminated from the individual archery event late on Tuesday night despite finding the 10 ring with his final arrow. In recurve archery, a 10 is the best score you can get from a single arrow. But that didn't matter as Dhiraj's campaign ended.

Here's our explainer on why Dhiraj was eliminated

Men's Singles Group K: HS Prannoy vs Duc Phat Lee: 11 pm IST (Badminton)

Women's singles R16, Manika Batra vs Zhu Chengzhu / Hui Mirano: 20.30 pm IST (Table Tennis)

Men's 71kg R16, Nishant Dev vs Jose Tenorio: 12.34 am IST (Thursday) (Boxing)

Men's recurve, RD of 64: Tarundeep Rai vs Tom Hall: 9.28 pm IST (RD 32 later, if win) (Archery)

This is what the badminton fans were waiting for. SatChi have been drawn to face Chia-Soh of Malaysia, who once had a 8-0 record against the Indians. But now it is 8-3. The worse news perhaps from India's point of view is SatChi are in the same half as top seeds Liang/Wang, so a potential semifinal against the Chonese, it might have been good to avoid them till the final if it was possible, but you got to beat the best to be best eh?

#Paris2024 #Olympics#Badminton

A1: Liang/Wang
B1: Seo/Kang
C1: SatChi
D1: Lee/Wang

Satwik-Chirag's potential QF opponents:

Chia/Soh, Kim/Anders, Jomkoh/Kedrenhttps://t.co/rm8rhLnihn pic.twitter.com/94ct6UeBGu

— Vinayakk (@vinayakkm) July 31, 2024