India’s badminton campaign received major setback at the London Olympics on Saturday as shuttlers Jwala Gutta and V Diju lost their opening game in the mixed doubles.
Indian pair Jwala and Diju went down 16-21, 12-21 to Indonesian pair of Tontowi Ahmad and Liliyana Natsir. Indian pair lost the game in just 25 minutes at the Wembley Arena.
In a one-sided match, Indian duo even failed to take lead in the match.
Jwala and Diju will have to win their remaining two games in the Group C.
The Indians will now be up against the Danish combination of Thomas Laybourn and Kamilla Rytter Juhl in their next match on Sunday.
The top two teams from each group will qualify for the quarterfinals.
Jwala and Diju will have to win remaining matches in the Group c to enter the final. On the other hand, India’s P Kashyap wikll face Belgium’s Yuhan Tan in the opening match of Men’s single event.
The India’s pair Jwala Gutta/Ashwini Poonappa, who won the gold medal in Commonwealth Game, will face Japan’s Mizuki Fujii/Reika Kakiiwa in Women\\\’s Doubles at 8.00 pm on Saturday.
India have been aiming medal in badminton event at the London Olympics. Though poor start in the opening match is real setback for India but expectations are high from super Saina Nehwal in women’s single event.
Apart from this, Indian boxers, shooters, weightlifters, paddlers Soumyajit and Ankita Das will also open their games on the second day of London Olympics.
In Tennis, Sania Mirza/Rashmi Chakraborthy will face Su Wei Hsieh/Chia-Jung Chuang in the mixed doubles.
In shooting, Vijay Kumar is competing 10m Air Pistol event while Soniya Chanu will compete in Women\\\’s 48kg weightlifting event at the London Olympics.
In boxing (56kg), Shiva Thapa will face Mexicos Oscar Valdez Fierro at 18.45 pm (IST) while Bronze medal winner in Beijing Olympics, Vijender Singh is round up for opening match in the 75 kg against Kzakhstan\\\’s Danabek Suzhanov.