Paris 2024: Open Olympics

Tuesday, July 30

When she was born in 2002, India, as an Olympic nation, had won a total of two bronze medals in individual events since gaining independence. In the space of just three days in Paris, Manu Bhaker claimed just as many, doubling her medal tally on Tuesday by winning the 10m pistol mixed team match with fellow 22-year-old and Haryanvi, Sarabjot Singh.

In the process, Bhaker became the very first Indian, man or woman, to win two medals in the very same Olympic Games. Bhaker and Singh did this by beating the favourites, South Korea’s Oh Ye Jin and Lee Won Ho, in the bronze medal playoff, causing mania amongst the Indian contingent in the Games Village as well as sending an entire nation into a tizzy. As great as the feat is, it could well get greater, with Bhaker now prepping a hattrick of medals around her neck at the 25m pistol event, to be held later this week.

While it might still be early days, Japan leads the medals tally with seven gold medals (and a total of 13 medals overall), one more than hosts France, China and Australia, all on six golds. Meanwhile, Team USA, who tend to dominate track & field and swimming disciplines, events that are yet to begin in Paris, find themselves just off the lead at sixth with four golds thus far.

Monday, July 29

Of all the Indians to have won their respective matches on Monday – be it paddler Manika Batra who became the first Indian to make the Round of 16 in women’s singles category of table tennis or the shuttlers pairing of Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy, who received a walkover entry into the quarterfinals of the badminton men’s doubles – the most interesting case was that of badminton singles specialist, Lakshya Sen.

A day earlier, 22-year-old Sen had beaten Guatemala’s Kevin Cordon in straight sets to win his opening round-robin game of Group L. But after the match, Cordon pulled out of the Paris Olympics due to an elbow injury, ensuring the two other players in the group wouldn’t get to have a contest against him. So, Sen’s victory was ‘deleted’ and he had to start all over again in this truncated three-player group, against Belgium’s Julien Carraggi. On Monday, the World No.18 refocussed and beat the Belgian in straight sets, fanning hopes of a qualification into the knock-out round. For that, he will have to get past the best player in the group on Wednesday, Indonesia’s Jonatan Christie, currently ranked third in the world.

It was right here at Roland Garros, 18 years ago, when Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic played each other for the very first time in their young careers, in the quarterfinal of the French Open. Nadal won easily that day. This Monday, on the very same court of Philippe Chatrier, came their 60^th meeting, as two ageing greats with 46 Grand Slam titles between them walked out to face each other for perhaps the final time in their storied careers.

Much was expected from Nadal despite his injury-ravaged body, given that he had won a record 14 French Open titles across his incredible life. But Serbia’s Djokovic, three-time French Open champion himself, happens to be the only living soul to have beaten the Spaniard on more than one occasion on the clay of Paris. Something had to give, and Nadal’s rustiness showed once the top-seeded Serb nearly ran away with the no-contest at 6-1, 4-0. But this is Paris and Nadal simply has never given up without a fight, so much to the crowd’s pleasure, the 38-year-old legend staged a comeback and made it 4-4 in the second set. Only for Djokovic to shift gears immediately and snuff out the challenge with the next two games. And thus, the greatest rivalry in the history of sport ended, with Djokovic possibly permanently sealing his slender career head-to-head lead over Nadal by 31-29.

Sunday, July 28

Then Manu Bhaker smiled. After all the tears that flowed freely at the previous Games in Tokyo three years ago thanks to a jammed pistol at the most inopportune time, 22-year-old Bhaker created history in Paris by becoming the first Indian woman to win an Olympic medal in shooting: a bronze in the 10m air pistol event. It was also India’s first medal at this Olympics. What more, the girl from Jhajjar, Haryana, ended the country’s 12-year long wait for a shooting medal at the Games, finishing behind two South Koreans in Oh Ye-jin and Kim Ye-ji. On the lowest step of the podium, Bhaker pulled out her phone and clicked a selfie with her fellow medallists. And they all beamed just as hard.

The Paris Games hasn’t been kind to Indian tennis, as there was a double blow for the country’s hopes of a first medal in the sport since Leander Paes won a bronze at Atlanta ’96. First, singles-specialist Sumit Nagal (who, like Bhaker, hails from Jhajjar) lost a gritty, three-setter to France’s Corentin Moutet, 6-2, 2-6, 7-5, in the first round. Then, two other Frenchmen in Gael Monfils and Edouard Roger-Vasselin snuffed out India’s doubles pairing of Rohan Bopanna and Sriram Balaji in straight sets, 7-5, 6-2.

Sticking with tennis, Spain’s Rafael Nadal began his singles campaign with a shaky first round win against Hungary’s Marton Fucsovics, 6-1, 4-6, 6-4. With the event held at Roland Garros, the venue of the French Open which Nadal has dominated like no other tennis player has any other Grand Slam, much is expected of the gold medallist from Beijing ’08. But waiting for him in the next round is the greatest of all time, Serbia’s Novak Djokovic, the only man to have defeated Nadal twice on the red clay of Paris. What more, Djokovic is desperate for the only missing element from completing a Golden Slam: the top medal at the Summer Games. A delicious contest awaits.

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