The opening day of the badminton event at the 2016 Rio Olympics proved to be a mixed affair for the Indians, with doubles team failing to win their matches while the Singles clinching all three that they were involved in.
India has had a disappointing outing in the racquet sports so far. On the opening day, all four Indian paddlers- Mouma Das, Manika Batra, Achanta Sharath Kamal and Soumyajit Ghosh- losing in the first round of competition.
If you thought that was bad, then Leander Paes and Rohan Bopanna provided further disappointment, when they were knocked out in the first round by the Polish pairing of Lukasz Kabot and Marcin Matkowski.
So for obvious reasons, the loss of Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa as well as Manu Attri and Sumeeth Reddy, would have caused similar fears among the badminton community on whether they too were eliminated in the opening round.
Luckily that isn’t the case. Unlike Table Tennis and Tennis, the format in Badminton at the Olympic Games is slightly different.
The players are divided into 4 groups of four pairs each and so they can afford to lose one match at most, and win the remaining two to ensure they make the cut for the Round of 16 stage.
From an Indian perspective, looking forward, both Jwala/Ashwini and Attri/Reddy have already played the toughest match in their group and so in their remaining matches, the first of which will be later today, they can hope to win and qualify for the Round of 16.
Formats in many sporting events have at times been a dicey affair, providing very little breathing space for teams or competitors to go through to the next round. Maybe the next time round in Tokyo, tennis and table tennis can adopt a broader draw that will provide them with a chance to play with a free mind.
