Indian badminton star Lakshya Sen on Friday said he has worked on his net game and the recent trait of conceding points late in a contest as he prepares in Marseille, France for the Paris Olympics starting next week. The world No 19 has been drawn in Group L along with Indonesian rival Jonatan Christie (WR 3), Guatemala’s Kevin Cordon (WR 41) who finished fourth in Tokyo Olympics, and Belgium’s Julien Carragi (WR 52). “We have focused a lot on overall improving the game and we had a good time for the last 6-7 weeks where I could really work on all the areas of the game,” Sen replied to a PTI query during a virtual interaction.

“From defence to attack and overall, we have tried to get better at everything, and at the same time, worked a lot on the areas (in) which I was not really good at (and) maybe give extra time on the net game, the defence and also closing stages.” “It is important to be sharp and be aggressive. (In the) last few days, we are still trying to get good match practice here, play short games and also have a good match practice session so that I am sharp towards the end of the game,” Sen said.

The 22-year-old said adjusting to shuttle movement in a place near to the sea is different and he expects similar conditions in Paris, where he will travel on July 22.

“I’m in Marseille right now and I’ll be training here (for) next two-three days and then (on July) 22nd afternoon, I move into the village. It’s a three hours journey from here to Paris,” he said.

“We have a good team of 10 members here and we decided this (place) because this is closer to Paris and we have a setup here with Popov brothers (Christo and Boris) who are good sparring (partners) as well.

“(It was about) mainly coming here early, get used to the time zones, the sleeping patterns and just be on the same. I would say the shuttle speed also matters a lot because in Bangalore it is quite fast,” he continued.

“When we train in a different place like Marseille, which is closer to the sea, the shuttle travels much slower and I think it will be somewhat similar in Paris as well — keeping the drift and air conditions in mind it will be a little bit different — but overall the shuttle speed also makes a lot of difference,” he said.

Sen said he would try to learn from the pervious encounters he had against Christie.

“The last two to three times we have played, it has been a close encounter. I’ll be watching those matches as well, maybe few things (about) what I can do better from the last time and focus on my strength, how I can control the game, how I can play my best,” he said.

Set to represent India in his first Olympics, Sen terms this as the biggest tournament of his career and is determined to top the group.

“I’m thinking about the first match and also winning the group because it’s a quite a tough group. Overall I feel really prepared to go out there and perform my best and the training has been good.

“Now it’s just a matter of going there, settling in, and being ready for each match. I’ll just take one match at a time as of now and give my best at the Olympics,” Sen added.

He said, “This is the biggest tournament of my life and the competition here will be very, very tough. Everyone will try to bring their A game and yeah, I’m also preparing the same way that I have to be at my very, very best.” Sen said he wasn’t thinking too far ahead with the possibility of facing compatriot HS Prannoy in the pre-quarterfinals.

“We have seen the draw. It is a potential pre-quarter final but there is a lot of work to do before that. I am really focused on topping the group right now and then let’s see what happens,” he said.

Two-time Olympic medallist PV Sindhu and HS Prannoy were on Friday handed easy groups for the Paris Games beginning on July 26. Sindhu, who won the silver medal at the Rio Games and followed that with a bronze in Tokyo Olympics, has been seeded 10th. The World number 13 has been drawn in Group M of the women’s singles alongside Kristin Kuuba of Estonia (WR 75) and Maldives’ Fathimath Nabaaha Abdul Razzaq. (WR 111). While Sindhu, who is vying for a third Olympic medal, has a relatively easy group, she could face China’s sixth seed He Bing Jiao in the round of 16.

If she gets past Jiao, Sindhu will likely face Olympic champion Chen Yu Fei of China in the quarterfinals.

The 29-year-old has not had the smoothest of runs in the lead up to the Olympics and it will take a special effort from her to a complete a hat-trick of medals at the Summer Games.

Meanwhile, Prannoy, who will be making his Olympic debut, has been seeded 13th and will have to go past Vietnam’s Le Duc Phat (WR 70) and Fabian Roth (WR 82) of Germany in Group K of the men’s singles event.

The second Indian in the men’s singles, Lakshya Sen, ranked 19, has been drawn in Group L.

The unseeded Lakshya has third seed and world number three Jonatan Christie of Indonesia in his group. They both are joined by Guatemala’s Kevin Cordon (WR 41) and Belgium’s Julien Carragi (WR 52).

Lakshya has an inferior 1-4 head-to-head record against Christie with the Indonesian getting the better of the 22-year-old twice this year already.

If both Prannoy and Lakshya can top their group, they will meet each other in the round of 16.

World number 19 pairing of Tanisha Crasto and Ashwini Ponnappa has been drawn in a difficult Group C in the women’s doubles event.

The Indians have been clubbed alongside world number 4 Nami Matsuyama and Chiharu Shida of Japan, Tokyo Olympics bronze medallist South Korea’s Kim So Yeong and Kong Hee Yong (WR 7) and Australians Setyana Mapasa and Angela Yu (WR 27).

The star Indian men’s pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty is probably India’s best bet for a medal. The duo has been seeded third in men’s doubles event.

However, the men’s doubles draw for the Paris Olympics was postponed due to a Court of Arbitration of Sport (CAS) hearing over the number of pairs in the draw.

The Badminton World Federation (BWF) is yet to confirm the date of the draw.

The badminton events at the Olympics will begin on July 27. 

File image of Prakash Padukone.© X (Twitter)

The highly anticipated Olympics 2024 are all set to kick-start from July 26 and will conclude on August 11. The Olympics will be hosted in Paris and a total of 206 countries will be participating from all over the world. The 2024 Paris Olympics will feature 45 different sports, including 41 that are considered mainstay Olympic sports. Four new sports like breaking, skateboarding, sport climbing, and surfing have also been included in this edition’ roster. India will be sending close to 120 athletes to Paris for the upcoming Olympic games in French capital.

India will look to outdo its tally of seven medals from the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, which included a gold, two silver, and four bronze medals.

Ahead of the marquee event, here’s a list of all the Indian athletes who have secured a spot in Olympics 2024.

Archery:

Dhiraj Bommadevara: Men’s team

Tarundeep Rai: Men’s team

Pravin Jadhav: Men’s team

Bhajan Kaur: Women’s team

Deepika Kumari: Women’s team

Ankita Bhakat: Women’s team

Athletics:

Akshdeep Singh: Men’s 20km race walk

Vikash Singh: Men’s 20km race walk

Paramjeet Singh Bisht: Men’s 20km race walk

Priyanka Goswami: Women’s 20km race walk

Avinash Sable: Men’s 3000m steeplechase

Parul Chaudhary: Women’s 3000m steeplechase, women’s 5000m steeplechase

Jyothi Yarraji: Women’s 100m hurdles

Kiran Pahal: Women’s 400m

Tajinderpal Singh Toor: Men’s shot put

Abha Khatua: Women’s shot put

Neeraj Chopra: Men’s javelin throw

Kishore Jena: Men’s javelin throw

Annu Rani: Women’s javelin throw

Sarvesh Kushare: Men’s high jump

Praveen Chithravel: Men’s triple jump

Abdulla Aboobacker: Men’s triple jump

Muhammed Anas Yahiya, Muhammed Ajmal, Amoj Jacob, Santhosh Tamilarasan, and Rajesh Ramesh: Men’s 4x400m relay

Mijo Chaco Kurian: 4x400m relay and 4x400m mixed relay

Vidhya Ramaraj, Jyothika Sri Dandi, MR Poovamma, Subha Venkatesan, and Prachi: Women’s 4x400m relay

Prachi: 4x400m mixed relay

Priyanka Goswami/Suraj Panwar: Race walk mixed marathon

Badminton:

H.S Prannoy: Men’s singles

Lakshya Sen: Men’s singles

P.V Sindhu: Women’s singles

Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty: Men’s doubles

Ashwini Ponappa and Tanisha Crasto: Women’s doubles

Boxing:

Nikhat Zareen: Women’s 50kg

Amit Phangal: Men’s 51kg

Nishant Dev: Men’s 71kg

Preeti Pawar: Women’s 54kg

Lovlina Borgohain: Women’s 75kg

Jaismine Lamboria: Women’s 57kg

Equestrian:

Anush Agarwalla: Dressage

Golf:

Subhankar Sharma: Men’s golf

Gaganjeet Bhullar: Men’s golf

Aditi Ashok: Women’s golf

Diksha Dagar: Women’s golf

Hockey:

P.R Sreejesh, Jarmanpreet Singh, Amit Rogidas, Harmanpreet Singh(c), Sumit, Sanjay, Rajkumar Pal, Shamsher Singh, Manpreet Singh, Hardik Singh, Vivek Sagar Prasad, Abhishek, Sukhjeet Singh, Lalit Kumar Upadhyay, Mandeep Singh, Gurjant Singh: Men’s hockey team

Judo:

Tulika Mann: Women’s 78kg

Rowing:

Balraj Panwar: M1x

Sailing:

Vishnu Saravanan: Men’s one person dinghy

Nethra Kumanan: Women’s one person dinghy

Shooting:

Prithviraj Tondaiman: Men’s trap

Rajeshwari Kumari: Women’s trap

Shreyasi Singh: Women’s trap

Anantjeet Singh Naruka: Men’s skeet

Raiza Dhillon: Women’s skeet

Maheshwari Chauhan: Women’s skeet

Anantjeet Singh Naruka/Maheshwari Chauhan: Skeet mixed team

Sandeep Singh: Men’s 10m air rifle

Arjun Babuta: Men’s 10m air rifle

Elavenil Valarivan: Women’s 10m air rifle

Ramita Jindal: Women’s 10m air rifle

Swapnil Kusale: Men’s 50m rifle 3 position

Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar: Men’s 50m rifle 3 position

Sift Kaur Samra: Women’s 50m rifle 3 positions

Anjum Moudgil: Women’s 50m rifle 3 positions

Sandeep Singh/Elavenil Valarivan: 10m air rifle mixed team

Arjun Babuta/Ramita Jindal: 10m air rifle mixed team

Arjun Cheema: Men’s 10m air pistol

Sarabjot Singh: Men’s 10m air pistol

Manu Bhaker: Women’s 10m air pistol

Rhythm Sangwam: Women’s 10m air pistol

Vijayveer Sidhu: Men’s 25m rapid fire pistol

Anish Bhanwala: Men’s 25m rapid fire pistol

Manu Bhaker: Women’s 25m pistol

Esha Singh: Women’s 25m pistol

Sarabjot Singh/Manu Bhaker: 10m air pistol mixed team

Arjun Cheema/Rhythm Sangwam: 10m air pistol mixed team

Swimming:

Dhinidhi Desinghu: Women’s 200m freestyle

Srihari Nataraj: Men’s 100m backstroke

Table Tennis:

Sharath Kamal: Men’s singles and men’s team

Harmeet Desai: Men’s singles and men’s team

Manav Thakkar: Men’s team

Manika Batra: Women’s singles and women’s team

Sreeja Akula: Women’s singles and women’s team

Archana Kamath: Women’s team

Tennis:

Sumit Nagal: Men’s singles

Rohan Bopanna and Sriram Balaji: Men’s doubles

Weightlifting:

Mirabai Chanu: Women’s 49kg

Wrestling:

Aman Sehrawat: Men’s freestyle 57kg

Vinesh Phogat: Women’s 50kg

Anshu Malik: Women’s 57kg

Nisha Dahiya: Women’s 68kg

Reetika Hooda: Women’s 76kg

Antim Phangal: Women’s 53kg

There is nobody more qualified in Indian badminton than Leroy D’Sa to talk about doubles in badminton. The only Indian shuttler to win four medals at the Asian Games, D’Sa is one of the finest doubles players the country has ever produced, and his success came at a time when doubles was the ignored art. D’Sa had to regularly set up scratch partnerships with top male and female singles players like Prakash Padukone, Ami Ghia, and Kanwal Thakur Singh to win medals in Asian Games doubles and mixed doubles.

So when Leroy D’Sa picks a pair as a favourite to win a medal at the upcoming Paris Olympic Games, one has to sit down and take note of it.

D’Sa picked India’s former World No.1 men’s doubles pair Satwaksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty as India’s best bet to win a medal in the upcoming Olympic Games, placing the pair ahead of two-time Olympics medallist P.V Sindhu.

“Players have been playing right throughout the year and there are too much of expectations. But I personally feel the most important point was to qualify for the Olympics. From all the players who have qualified I believe we have a very good chance of coming back with a bigger haul than ever,” said D’Sa during a panel discussion on India’s chances at the Paris Olympics organised by the Sports Journalists Association of Mumbai (SJAM) on the occasion of World Sports Journalists Day on Tuesday.

Hockey Olympian and Olympic Gold Quest CEO Viren Rasqinha, Athletics Federation of India President Adille Sumariwalla, chief coach of Indian rifle shooting team Suma Shirur and former India Davis Cupper Purav Raja were the other participants in the panle discussion.

D’Sa said that this time the badminton contingent at Paris will be the largest-ever from India at the Olympics as so many players have qualified for the Games.

“Two boys in the singles category (Lakshya Sen, H.S Prannoy), Sidhu in the women’s singles, Chirag-Satwik in men’s doubles. In my opinion, Chirag/Satwik are the best prospects to come back with a medal. I would place Sindhu next because she is the one who has tasted blood and knows what it takes to win at the highest level. She is once again in good form and I am very sure with the guidance that she is receiving from Prakash Padukone, winning a medal I don’t think will be difficult,” said D’Sa.

Three medals if not four: D’Sa

D’Sa, who won three bronze medals in the 1982 Asian Games in men’s doubles, mixed doubles, and men’s team and a fourth bronze in the 1986 Games in Seoul in men’s team event, picked both Lakshya Sen and H.S Prannoy as dark horses.

“Lakshya Sen and H.S Prannoy both, to me, are the dark horses in the singles. Lakshya Sen once again has been playing extremely well. Unfortunately, HS Prannoy has been having some medical issues. He has not played very well. But I think now that is all over. If these players are able to be injury-free I am very sure that this time we will come back with at least three medals if not four,” said D’Sa.

D’Sa also has high hopes from the young women’s doubles pair of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand, who he said have gained enough experience and caused many upsets on the BWF circuit.

Star shuttlers PV Sindhu and HS Prannoy progressed to the second round but Lakshya Sen went down fighting to world No. 1 Viktor Axelsen at the Singapore Open Super 750 Badminton Tournament here on Wednesday. Sindhu had last won a BWF title at Singapore two years back and she entered the tournament after signing off with a runner-up finish at Thailand Open last week. Up against world no. 21 Line Hojmark Kjaersfeldt of Denmark, the Indian registered a 21-12 22-20 win in a 44-minute opening round encounter to set up a mouth-watering battle against Rio Olympic champion Carolina Marin of Spain.

World No. 3 Marin has an overwhelming 11-5 record against the Indian. The last time the two clashed, it turned out to be an ill-tempered match at Denmark Open which saw both players receiving yellow cards for verbal exchanges.

World No. 10 Prannoy then quelled a spirited challenge from Julien Carraggi, ranked 45, of Belgium 21-9 18-21 21-9 to set up a meeting with Japan’s Kenta Nishimoto next.

Commonwealth Games bronze medallist pair of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand notched up a 21-7 21-14 win over Cheng Yu-Pei and Sun Yu Hsing of Chinese Taipei to make a good start in women’s doubles.

However world No. 14 Lakshya, who will be making his Olympic debut at the Paris Games, fought hard but went out of steam after the change of ends in the decider to go down 13-21 21-16 13-21 in 62 minutes against Axelsen, who won his first title of the season at Thailand Open last week.

Kidambi Srikanth’s opening round match ended in agony as he retired due to a knee injury after lagging 14-21 3-11 against Japan’s fifth seed Kodai Naraoka.

In other results, Olympic-bound women’s combination of Tanisha Crasto and Ashwini Ponnappa lost 21-18 19-21 19-21 to Ukraine’s Polina Buhrova and Yevheniia Kantemyr, while men’s pair of Krishna Prasad Garage and Sai Pratheek K suffered a 16-21 22-24 loss to second seeded Chinese Liang Wei Keng and Wang Chang.

B Sumeeth Reddy and N Sikki Reddy lost 18-21 19-21 to Malaysia’s Goh Soon Huat and Lai Shevon Jemie in mixed doubles, while Venkat Gaurav Prasad and Juhi Dewangan lost 8-21 8-21 against Mads Vestergaard and Christine Busch in another match.

Sindhu vs Line

Sindhu held a 3-0 head-to-head count against Line but things started on an even note as the two were tied 8-8 at one stage before the Indian grabbed a two-point advantage at the break with a fine drop shot.

The Indian moved to 16-11 with some quick points as Line made too many unforced errors during the testing rallies. Sindhu soon held eight game points and converted it with a straight return.

After the change of sides, Sindhu continued the momentum to open up a 5-1 lead before taking an 11-7 cushion at the interval, with Line finding the net.

However, the Dane slowly clawed back at 14-14 and stood four points away from taking the match to the decider, but Sindhu stepped up the pace in time to dash her hopes as she reeled off six straight points to seal the win.

Lakshya Sen will train at The Halle des Sports Parsemain with his coach and support staff.© AFP