Injury withdrawals in men's badminton at the 2024 Paris Olympics have impacted the group-stage draw for the Indian contingent, but in a contrasting fashion. While Guatemala's Kevin Cordon's withdrawal due to elbow injury, left Lakshya Sen in a precarious spot in Group L of the singles draw, after his straight-game win in his Olympic debut was 'deleted', for men's doubles Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, they evaded a similar fate after their opponent's injury withdrawal on Monday,

The world No. 3 doubles pair were slated to take on Germany's Mark Lamsfuss and Marvin Seide in their second group game at the Paris Olympics. However, the latter withdrew from the draw on Tuesday after Lamsfuss incurred a knee injury. BWF issued a statement on the injury, wishing Lamsfuss a speedy recovery, before revealing that the result of the second match for Satwik-Chirag will now be null and void.

“German men’s doubles player Mark Lamsfuss has withdrawn from the Olympic Games Paris 2024 badminton competition due to a knee injury. Lamsfuss’ and teammate Marvin Seidel‘s remaining Group C matches against India’s Satwiksairaj Rankireddy/Chirag Shetty (Court 3, 8.30am local time, 29 July 2024) and Lucas Corvee/Ronan Labar of France (Court 1, ‘Not Before’ 2.50pm local time, 30 July 2024) will not be played."

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

The injury withdrawal leaves Satwik-Chirag, the reigning Asian Games champions, in an advantageous position in the group. Earlier on Saturday, the Indian pair notched up a 21-17 21-14 win against the French combination of Lucas Corvee and Ronan Labar in a Group C contest. This implies that if Lucas and Ronan lose to Indonesian pair of Fajar Alfian and Muhammed Rian Ardianto in their group-stage tie on Monday, Satwik-Chirag will automatically go through to the quarterfinal.

This situation is unlike what Lakshya incurred earlier on Sunday after Cordon, who he beat 21-8, 22-20 in the Group L match on Saturday, pulled out of the Games. As per the BWF General Competition Regulations for group stage play, the result from that match was deleted. This implies that the Indian shuttler will now be ranked based on the results of his remaining two matches in Group L. He will next take on Julien Carraggi on Monday.

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