Satwiksairaj Rankireddy, one half of India’s top men’s doubles badminton team, enjoyed a memorable moment at the Paris Olympics Athletes Village. After settling in, he met tennis legend Rafael Nadal and shared a photo on Instagram with the caption: “With the best.”
The Paris Olympics will officially open on July 26 and conclude on August 11. The Indian team aims to exceed its previous record of seven medals from the Tokyo 2021 Games.
Satwik and his men’s doubles partner Chirag Shetty, known as ‘Sat-Chi’, are strong medal contenders. This year, they’ve won two Badminton World Federation Tour titles: the French Open in March 2024 and the Thailand Open in May 2024. The pair, formerly ranked number one and currently ranked third globally, also secured a bronze at the 2022 World Championships, gold at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games in 2022, and a historic gold at the Asian Games in Hangzhou last year.
