2024 Paris Olympics Badminton: Ashwini Ponnappa and Tanisha Crasto vs Nami Matsuyama and Chiharu Shida head-to-head record

Ashwini Ponnappa and Tanisha Crasto will continue their campaign at the Paris Olympics with their second group stage match on Monday, July 29. The Indians had a difficult opening round, and are awaited by another mighty obstacle later today.

For their second round match, Ponnappa and Crasto will be taking on World No.4 Nami Matsuyama and Chiharu Shida. Elsewhere, the other half of Group C, Kim So-yeong/Kong Hee Yong and Setyana Mapasa/Angela Yu will be battling each other.

Coming into this match against the Japanese, Ponnappa and Crasto are certainly the underdogs. As the World No.19, they're ranked well below their opponents and have only played Matsuyama and Shida once.

That meeting took place just three months ago, at the 2024 Badminton Asia Championships. Playing in Ningbo, the Japanese walked away with the win on the back of a scoreline reading 21-17, 21-12 in their favor. However, Ashwini Ponnappa and Tanisha Crasto managed to make their opponents work for the win, keeping them on the court for nearly an hour.

Now, as they battle each other yet again, the Indians will have to dig deep and try to hold on for the win. With only one pair from each group making it into the elimination rounds, Ponnappa and Crasto are trapped in a do-or-die situation, where a loss would see their campaign at the Paris Olympics come to a close in the group stages itself.

Paris Olympics 2024: Ashwini Ponnappa and Tanisha Crasto to take on Setyana Mapasa and Angela Yu for final group stage match

Regardless of their outcome against the Japanese pair of Nami Matsuyama and Chiharu Shida, the duo of Ashwini Ponnappa and Tanisha Crasto will get one more chance to step out onto the courts of La Chapelle Arena when they fight Setyana Mapasa and Angela Yu for their final group stage match.

Like the Indians, Mapasa and Yu are unlikely to make it past these early stages, being the lowest-ranked pair in Group C. However, this clash will give Ponnappa and Crasto to walk away from Paris with at least one win.