Paris Olympics: Sawtik-Chirag drawn in Group C alongside Fajar-Ardianto

Ace Indian men's doubles pairing of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty have been drawn in Group C for the upcoming Paris Olympics, as announced by the Badminton World Federation (BWF) on Monday.

The postponed men's doubles draw took place at the BWF headquarters in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

World No. 6 Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Rian Ardianto of Indonesia, World No. 39 Corvee and Labar, and World No. 46 Mark Lamsfuss and Marvin Seidel of Germany are the other three pairings in Group C.

The BWF postponed the men's draw on July 12 after the French duo of Corvee and Labar was included in the revised 17-pair men's doubles draw following a decision by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).

The CAS ordered the BWF to recommend their inclusion to the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which the IOC accepted, confirming their participation as the second French men's doubles pair.

The biggest fixture in Group C would be between Satwik-Chirag and Alfian-Ardianto. The Indians are on a three-match unbeaten streak against Alfian and Ardianto. But their last win against the Indonesians came in 2023, and Alfian and Ardianto became the All England Open champions this year.

On the other hand, Satwik and Chirag lost to the Indonesian pair of Bagas Maulana and Mohammad Fikri in the round of 16 at that event.

The Indian pair played Corvee and Labar twice, and on both occasions, they won.

The German pair, Lamsfuss and Seidel, who competed in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, were eliminated in the group stage. Their last BWF title came at the Orleans Masters in 2018.

The men's doubles draw for Paris 2024 consists of four groups, with the top two pairs from each group advancing to the next round.

While the three groups have four pairings, only Group D has five pairings.

Final Draw:

Group A

Liang Wei Keng and Wang Chang (top seed) (China)

Ben Lane and Sean Vendy (GBR)

Adam Dong and Nyl Yakura (Canada)

Aaron Chia and Wooi Yik Soh (Malaysia)

Group B

Min Hyuk Kang and Seo Seung-Jae (fourth seed) (Korea)

Christo Popov and Toma Junior Popov (France)

Supak Jomkoh and Kittinupong Kedren (Thailand)

Ondrej Kral and Adam Mendrek (Czech Republic)

Group C

Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty (third seed) (India)

Lucas Corvee and Ronan Labar (Fance)

Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Rian Ardianto (Indonesia)

Mark Lamsfuss and Marvin Seidel (Germany)

Group D

Kim Astrup and Andreas Rasmussen (second) (Denmark)

Liu Yu Chen and Ou Xuan Yi ( China)

Lee Yang and Chi-Lin Wang (Chinese Taipei)

Takuro Hoki and Yugo Kobayashi (Japan)

Vinson Chiu and Joshua Yuan (USA)