Paris Olympics 2024: India’s Satwiksairaj and Chirag Shetty’s match cancelled due to opponents’ withdrawal; Lakshya Sen loses two points after opponent’s injury

Two badminton players have withdrawn from their respective groups, in which Indian players have been placed, due to injuries at the ongoing Paris Olympics 2024. The withdrawal means the matches and results involving the withdrawn players now stand cancelled, according to the Badminton World Federation (BWF) rules.

Germany’s Markus Lamsfuss and Marvin Seidel had to pull out of the ongoing Olympics due to Lamsfuss’ knee injury. The duo were slated to face India’s Satiwksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty. The match, scheduled on July 29, is now cancelled.

With the German team’s pull out, the group now only has three teams. The top two teams in each group will advance to the quarterfinals.

Satwiksairaj and Chirag beat France’s Lucas Korvee and Ronan Labar in their first match. They will face the other remaining team in the group – Indonesia’s Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Rian Ardianto.

While Satwiksairaj and Chirag did not play the team that withdrew, India’s Lakshya Sen’s win over Gautemala’s Kevin Cordon is now null and void as Cordon withdrew due to an elbow injury.

Lakshya Sen won his first Paris Olympics 2024 men’s singles match over Cordon, who reached the semifinals at the Tokyo Olympics 2020, with a 21-8, 22-20 scoreline.

The result is now cancelled and Lakshya Sen’s group has also become a three member group.

The two points Lakshya had earned now becomes zero and the Indian shuttler will now have to start from scratch.

The 22-year-old Indian player has an uphill task as he has to beat Indonesia’s third seed Jonathan Christie and Belgium’s Julien Carragi to advance to the knockouts.

The BWF, in a statement, reiterated the rules. “As per the BWF General Competition Regulations for group stage play, the results of all matches played, or yet to be played, involving the respective groups are now considered deleted. Matches on these courts in each respective session have been rescheduled,” the statement read.