India's badminton stars fail to shine at Rio 2016
Disappointment for the subcontinent as an injury-hit Saina Nehwal crashes out to Maria Ulitina
India's hopes now rest on the young shoulders of P.V. Sindhu in the women's singles (Photo: Getty Images/Robertus Pudyanto)
India's hopes in the Rio 2016 Olympic Games badminton women's singles competition now sit squarely on the shoulders of Pusarla V. Sindhu after no.5 seed Saina Nehwal limped out of the tournament on Sunday (14 August) with an injury-affected loss to Ukraine's Maria Ulitina.
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India's biggest hope of delivering a first Olympic Games badminton gold medal for the country laboured to a 21-18, 21-19 defeat by the world no.61, with heavy strapping visible on Nehwal's problem right knee.
"I got the injury before the Olympics almost one-and-a-half, two weeks' back, so I was not fully prepared," said Nehwal, the London 2012 bronze medallist. "Obviously I feel bad but the pain is there so there is nothing I can do about it."
Pusarla also looked in trouble after losing the first game of her winner-takes-all match with Canada's Michelle Li in group M, but the No.9 seed bounced back to claim the next two and reach the last 16.
Nehwal was one of only two singles seeds from the 24 who lost on on Sunday. The other was the no.11 in the women's event, Kirsty Gilmour of Great Britain, who stormed into an 11-1 lead in the first game of her decisive match with Bulgaria's Linda Zetchiri but went point-to-point with the Bulgarian after that, eventually losing in three games.
"I do tend to come out very fast and not a lot of people can keep up," Gilmour said. "But then they settle into the rhythm and they know what's coming, and she just kind of caught up to the pace."
Commonwealth and European silver medallist Kirsty Gilmour also crashed out in Rio (Photo: Getty Images/Dean Mouhtaropoulos)
All 13 seeds in men's singles were in action in the final matches of their groups on Sunday, with only German athlete Marc Zwiebler failing to progress to the knockout phase following his costly loss to man-of-the-moment Scott Evans of Ireland on Friday.
Local favourite Ygor Coelho de Oliveira struck an upbeat tone as he bode a fond farewell to his home Olympic Games on Sunday following a noisy 12-21, 12-21 loss to Zwiebler, his second defeat in two days.
"Badminton in Brazil is growing up," de Oliveira said. "It is getting more popular (and) is not so expensive. The support exists."
The pick of Monday's ties in the last 16 of men's singles pits no.5 seed Jan O Jorgensen of Denmark against the no.9, Srikanth Kidambi. The top three of Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia and China's Chen Long and and double Olympic champion Lin Dan have all been given byes into the quarter-finals.
