Rio Olympics 2016: Jwala Gutta-Ashwini Ponnappa lose final group match in badminton doubles

Rio de Janeiro: Already out of medal contention, India’s women’s doubles pair of Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa suffered their third successive loss in their final Group A match against Thailand’s Supajirakul Puttita and Taerattanachai Sapsiree in the badminton event on Saturday. Playing their second Olympics after London Games, Jwala and Ashwini lost 17-21 15-21 in a women’s doubles match to finish their proceedings with a hat-trick of defeats.

The 2010 Commonwealth Games champions had defeated the World No 16 Thai pair twice this year at the Syed Modi Grand Prix Gold and Uber Cup but all that didn’t matter as their fight lasted only 44 minutes at the Riocentre - Pavillion in Rio. In the opening game, Jwala and Ashwini opened up a 6-3 lead before reaching 10-5 but soon they hit wide and played some miscued shots to allow the Thai pair enter the interval with a slender 11-10 lead. The Indian combo managed to move ahead to 15-13 but once again errors came back to haunt them as Thai pair made it 16-15. Sapsiree and Puttita eventually pocketed the opening game in 21 minutes when Jwala hit the nets. In the second game, the Thai pair carried on the momentum, surging 4-0 ahead. Jwala and Ashwini tried to narrow the gap but Sapsiree and Puttita entered the break at 11-5 after producing a smash which the Indians had no answers. The Thai pair continued to stay ahead after the interval, keeping a safe distance from the Indians. They had seven match points after the Indians hit long and eventually sealed the issue when Jwala failed to negotiate a body smash following a long rally. The experienced Indian duo was eliminated from women’s doubles event on Friday after losing a second successive match against the Dutch pair of Eefje Muskens and Selena Piek 16-21 21-16 17-21.