Paris (France): The Indian Pair of Tanisha Crastro and Ashwini Ponappa were up against a tough Korean challenge as they met World No. 8 Yeong Kim and Yong Kong of Korea in the Group C encounter of the Women’s Doubles badminton competition in the Paris Olympics 2024.
Both teams were fighting an intense battle at the start and the scores were levelled at 4-4 in the first set. But, the Korean Pair earned four points in a row after that and the scoreline was soon 9-5 in favour of the Koreans.
The Indian duo of Ponappa and Crasto tried relentlessly attacking the body of the opponents with their smashes and closed the gap to 11-8 by the interval in the first set.
The game of the Indian duo relied on smashes but the Korean opponents were brilliant with their placements and sharp returns on the court throughout the match. Crasto and Ponappa tried to make their way back into the match in the first set, but the Koreans continued their scoring momentum and won the first set by 21-18.
The Korean pair of Kim and Kong continued their winning momentum from the first set and orchestrated lethal attacks to take the early lead in the second set by 5-1. The Indian pair then lost the plot and kept making some unforced errors. Koreans were heading for an easy win by the interval in the second set.
Crasto and Ponappa never recovered from the early damage in the decisive set and lost points at regular intervals. Kim and Kong won the second set by 21-10 and the match was wrapped in a span of 46 minutes
The Indian pair ranked 19 across the world put up a good fight against a mighty pair by attacking their body in the first set at regular intervals and showed a glimmer of hope that they could fight back in the next two sets.
However, the Indian ship sank further in the second set after losing the first one by a close margin as the Koreans decimated their opponents with some brilliant smashes and compelled the Indians to make unforced errors.
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