Shuttler Nettasinghe goes down fighting in Olympic debut
Sri Lanka’s Viren Nettasinghe went down fighting by straight sets against the World No. 7 Zii Jia Lee of Malaysia in their Men’s Singles opening Group ‘G’ game of the 2024 Paris Olympic Games Badminton Tournament played at the Porte de La Chapelle Arena in Paris yesterday.
Nettasinghe will play his second group game on Tuesday at 12:00 noon local time, approximately 3.30 p.m. Sri Lanka time.
Only the top player of each group will advance to the Round of 16 at the Paris Games.
The young prodigy, making his Olympic debut as the youngest ever shuttler to earn a direct qualification to the Paris Games 2024, however, never made it easy for the experienced Malaysian shuttler.
Nettasinghe made promising starts in both sets, earning early leads to cause initial trouble against his much experienced Malaysian rival, who clinically countered the spirited Sri Lankan, thwarting a possible victory.
The 21-year-old will take on Spaniard Pablo Abian in the next group stage encounter.
The Sri Lankan top-ranked shuttler made a dream start to gain the first couple of points against the current seventhranked player in the world, but with his experience, Lee outsmarted Nettasinghe comprehensively.
Eventually, the first set ended in favour of Lee, who claimed a 21-14 win against the spirited Sri Lankan youngster.
The fighting spirit of the young Sri Lankan was more evident in the second set, though he went down fighting 12-21, conceding a straight win to the much-experienced Malaysian.
Nettasinghe put the first points on board and came neck-to-neck against Lee, as the second set was locked at eight-all at one stage.
But the seasoned Malaysian shuttler made use of his experience as a top world shuttler to shun all efforts made by Nettasinghe, currently ranked 72th in the world.
Eventually, Lee went well ahead of Nettasinghe to claim a resounding 21-12 win, sealing the first Group ‘G’ game in straight sets.