Paris Oly: Shuttler Satwik strikes ‘gold’, meets Nadal – see pic
One half of India’s ace men’s doubles badminton team, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy, struck gold soon after he settled inside the Athletes Village at the Paris Olympics as he met tennis legend Rafael Nadal and got himself pictured with the Spanish super star.
Satwik shared the photo in an Instagram story, and captioned it: “With the best”.The Paris Olympics are set to be officially declared open on July 26 and conclude on August 11.
The Indian contingent will aim to surpass its previous best tally of seven medals, achieved at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.
![Satwik-Nadal-insta](https://static.toiimg.com/thumb/imgsize-23456,msid-111946499,width-600,resizemode-4/111946499.jpg)
Satwik and his men’s doubles partner Chirag Shetty are considered one of the strongest contenders for a medal in their category. The popular duo, also known as ‘Sat-Chi’, have had a successful year so far, winning two Badminton World Federation Tour titles — the French Open title in March 2024 and the Thailand Open 2024 in May 2024.
The former number one pair is currently ranked third on the world rankings.
They also won the World Championships men’s doubles bronze medal in 2022, gold at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games in 2022 and a historic gold at the Asian Games in Hangzhou last year.