The men’s doubles team of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty won their last league match against Great Britain’s Ben Lane and Sean Vendy 21-17, 21-19 but lost out on an Olympic quarterfinal berth following a dramatic three-way tie for the two qualifying spots from Group A on Tuesday.
What broke the hearts of the Indians was the three-game upset of the top-seeded Indonesian pair Marcus Fernaldi Gideon and Kevin Sanjaya Sukamkuljo by the third-seeded Chinese Taipei duo of Lee Yang and Wang Chi-lin.
Since Satwik and Chirag had beaten Yang and Chi-lin, they must have been hoping that the Indonesians would win the last match.
However, it was Yang and Chi-lin who posted a 21-18, 15-21, 21-17 victory over Gideon and Sukamuljo. The result left the pairs from Indonesia, Chinese Taipei and India tied with a 2-1 record.
Following the calculations of the difference between games won/lost,
Indonesia talled 5/2, Chinese Taipei 5/3 and India bowed out with a 4/3 tally.
On the court, Satwik and Chirag let slip an early lead. However, the Indians finally broke free from 7-7 in the first game to take control. The Englishmen did close the gap to 17-19 but the
Indians did not allow them to get any closer.
In a close second game, Lane and Vendy raised visions of stretching the contest to the decider when they led 19-18. Once again, the Indians shifted gears, clinching the last three points and sealing the issue.
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