Paris: Indian badminton star Satwiksairaj Rankireddy had a fanboy moment in Paris ahead of the 2024 Olympics as he met legendary Spanish tennis player Rafael Nadal at the Olympics Village.
On Monday, Satwiksairaj shared a picture with Nadal on his Instagram story, with him being ecstatic about posing “with the best”.
Indian contingent will kickstart its Paris Olympics journey from July 25 onwards, with 112 athletes set to feature in 69 medal events across 16 sports. The Olympics will conclude on August 11. India will look to outdo its tally of seven medals from the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, which included a gold, two silver, and four bronze medals.
Satwiksairaj along with his men’s doubles partner Chirag Shetty, are perhaps the strongest contenders for a medal.
This year, the popular men’s doubles pair, also known as ‘Sat-Chi’, have won two Badminton World Federation (BWF) Tour titles, the French Open title in March 2024 and the Thailand Open 2024 in May 2024. They also finished as runners-up in the Malaysian Open and India Open.
They were also a part of the Indian team that played in the Thomas Cup 2024 as the defending champions. However, they could not defend the title as they lost to the eventual champions China by 3-1 in the quarterfinals.
With a peak of number one ranking in men’s doubles competition, several BWF Tour titles, the World Championships men’s doubles bronze medal in 2022, gold in men’s doubles competition at Commonwealth Games 2022 and Asian Games Hangzhou the following year and silver medals in mixed team events at these two events, Satwiksairaj-Chirag have a huge cabinet of medals and accomplishments supporting the claim of them being a leading medal contender.
On the other hand, coming to tennis, Nadal lost to seventh-seeded Portugal tennis player Nuno Borges in the final of the Nordea Open on Sunday by 6-3, 6-2. This was his first final in around two years.
In what is deemed to be a dream duo, 22-time Grand Slam champion Nadal and the recently-crowned Wimbledon champion, Carlos Alcaraz will participate in the upcoming Paris 2024 Olympics as men’s doubles partners.
Alcaraz and Nadal will be one of the most powerful teams in the men’s doubles category, having won 15 French Open titles between them. The tennis sport at the next Olympic Games will take place on the clay court in Paris.
Rafael Nadal has been vociferous about representing Spain in the Paris Olympics, which is believed to be his final year on the ATP tour as a professional. Nadal underlined his promise to compete in the Olympics after losing in the first round of the French Open in May.
