Satwik-Chirag loses to world No.1 Sukamuljo and Gideon in second match
Tokyo: The Indian men's doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty suffered a straight game loss to world number one Marcus Gideon Fernaldi and Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo of Indonesia in their second Group A match at the Olympics on Monday.
The world number 10 Indian duo could never get into any kind of rhythm and lost 13-21 12-21 in 32 minutes against the top seeded team. It was their ninth defeat to the Indonesian pair in as many meetings.
Sukamuljo and Gideon are now at the top of the group, while Satwik and Chirag are on the second spot. The Indians will look to beat England's Ben Lane and Sean Vendy, who had also suffered a defeat against the famed Indonesians.
World number three Chinese Taipei pair of Lee Yang and Wang Chi-Lin, the fourth team in Group A, also notched up a win against the English duo earlier in the day to stay in contention.
The match started with short rallies with both the parties moving neck and neck till 6-6. The Indonesians then reeled off five straight points to enter the break with four advantage points.
Sukamuljo was simply sensational in front of the court, using his high racquet speed to perfection.
At 9-13, Chirag took a medical timeout after he seemed to have hurt his toe.
After the resumption, the Indonesian pair continued to dominate the proceedings and grabbed eight game points and converted in the second attempt to take a 1-0 lead.
The Indians seemed to have worked out a strategy early in the second game to lead 6-3, but the Indonesian combo turned it around soon to lead 9-7 with four straight points, riding on a series of superb serves.
Sukamuljo and Gideon entered the break with a three-point lead after the former sent the shuttle to Satwik's body. The duo forced the Indians into committing errors and move to 15-10.
It was a one-way traffic mostly as the Indonesian duo stepped up the intensity to move to 18-10.
A net error gave Indonesia eight match points and they sealed it when Chirag went to the net.
Satwik and Chirag shocked the world number three pair of Yang Lee and Chi-Lin Wang of Chinese Taipei in their opening match in Group A on Saturday.
Olympic silver medallist P V Sindhu also made a winning start to her women's singles campaign, with a straight game victory over Israel's Ksenia Polikarpova on Sunday.
However, B Sai Praneeth had lost his opening match to Misha Zilberman of Israel in the men's singles.
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Another North Goa nightclub sealed; Kejriwal says corruption led to fire tragedy
Panaji (PTI): As part of a crackdown against tourist establishments violating laws and safety norms in the aftermath of the Arpora fire tragedy, Goa authorities on Saturday sealed a renowned club at Vagator and revoked the fire department NOC of another club.
Cafe CO2 Goa, located on a cliff overlooking the Arabian Sea at Vagator beach in North Goa, was sealed. The move came two days after Goya Club, also in Vagator, was shut down for alleged violations of rules.
Elsewhere, campaigning for local body polls, AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal said the fire incident at Birch by Romeo Lane nightclub at Arpora, which claimed 25 lives on December 6, happened because the BJP government in the state was corrupt.
An inspection of Cafe CO2 Goa by a state government-appointed team revealed that the establishment, with a seating capacity of 250, did not possess a no-objection certificate (NOC) of the Fire and Emergency Services Department. The club, which sits atop Ozrant Cliff, also did not have structural stability, the team found.
The Fire and Emergency Services on Saturday also revoked the NOC issued to Diaz Pool Club and Bar at Anjuna as the fire extinguishers installed in the establishment were found to be inadequate, said divisional fire officer Shripad Gawas.
A notice was issued to Nitin Wadhwa, the partner of the club, he said in the order.
Campaigning at Chimbel village near Panaji in support of his party's Zilla Panchayat election candidate, Aam Aadmi Party leader Kejriwal said the nightclub fire at Arpora happened because of the "corruption of the Pramod Sawant-led state government."
"Why this fire incident happened? I read in the newspapers that the nightclub had no occupancy certificate, no building licence, no excise licence, no construction licence or trade licence. The entire club was illegal but still it was going on," he said.
"How could it go on? Couldn't Pramod Sawant or anyone else see it? I was told that hafta (bribe) was being paid," the former Delhi chief minister said.
A person can not work without bribing officials in the coastal state, Kejriwal said, alleging that officers, MLAs and even ministers are accepting bribes.
