With their hopes of progressing from the group stage already gone, the Indian badminton pairs bowed out of Rio on a high.
The men’s doubles combine of Manu Attri and Sumeeth Reddy had something to smile about as they stunned the World No. 8 pair of Hiroyuki Endo and Kenichi Hayakawa of Japan 23-21, 21-11, while the women’s doubles duo of Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa slumped to their third consecutive defeat to finish a disastrous Olympics campaign.
Attri and Reddy, currently ranked 21st in the world, put in a sterling performance against the Group D toppers, and surged into an early 8-3 lead.
Japan, however, soon settled into the match and overturned the deficit to lead 11-9 at the mid-game interval.
But Attri and Reddy kept calm and finally found an opening while trailing 13-17. They kept composed and showed resilience to eke out the opener 23-21 in 20 minutes.
The Indians stormed out of the blocks in the second game to open up a six point lead (11-5), and continued to play with ferocity, winning the game 21-11.
Gutta and Ponnappa did not enjoy the same fortunes losing 17-21, 15-21 to the Thai pair of Puttita Supajirakul and Sapsiree Taerattanachai.
The Indians inability to hold on to the lead was the architect of their downfall. In the opening game, they led by five points (10-5) and looked in firm control, but the Thai pair battled back to grab the opening game 21-17.
In the second game, Gutta and Ponnappa looked dispirited after being in such an advantageous position and looked to find their rhythm when leading 12-9. But the Thais showed their class and duly upped the tempo to win the second game 21-17 in 44 minutes.