Rio Olympics: India's Jwala Gutta-Ashwini Ponnappa pair loses

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Rio de Janeiro, Aug 11: India's Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa were off to a losing start in the women's doubles category in badminton at the Rio Olympics 2016 here today (August 11).

The Indian duo was beaten by world number pair of Misaki Matsutomo-Ayaka Takahashi (Japan) in 15-21, 10-21 straight sets in Group A on Thursday. (India's schedule)

Jwala and Ashwini were off to a good start with a 4-1 lead in the first set but that advantage was neutralised by the opposition duo. After trailing early on, Misaki-Ayaka bounced back and did not had the lead back in the first game. They won 21-15 in 19 minutes.

In the second game, the Japanese world number one combination, raced to 5-1 cushion and from there on grew from strength to strenght to seal the match in their favour. The second game was completed in 17 minutes.

For the Japanese players, the biggest lead in 1st games was 6 points and in the second, it was 11. For Jwala-Ashwini, it was 3-point advantage in the 1st game while they never managed to be ahead in the second.

Jwala and Ashwini have 3 more matches to play in the group stage. The top two pairs from group phase will enter the knockouts (quarter-finals). (Badminton draw)

Today is the first day of badminton competition at Rio Games. India's all 7 shuttlers are scheduled to play. Medal hope Saina Nehwal will be in action later today (7.50 PM IST).

OneIndia News