Initially, Niluka went in with great expectation of making it past the first round, knowing his opponent Chen Long’s abilities. However, Niluka’s lack of experience resulted in favour of of Chen who comprehensively defeated him, dominating from the start.

Knowing his fate, Niluka certainly did want to make a difference by bagging a win in the second game. He certainly did make it past the Polish opponent who battled it out until the end.

“I thought I could’ve done better against Chen Long (in the first match). I’ve had really hard training. Even the World champion has to start at zero. He came up with different strategies to break my momentum from time to time. It has been a great experience and I’m thankful to be here in Brazil,” said Niluka Karunaratne.

The match got off to a surprisingly delayed start, which is rare in Olympic completion, as the previous matches of the scheduled court had taken a longer duration. Karunaratne, Sri Lanka’s undisputed men’s single champion on 14 occasions could not offer much in the first set as London Olympics bronze medallist Chen had an easy 21-7 victory in 19 minutes.

But Karunaratne fought back early in the second set and the scores were tied five-all at one stage.

But Chen, the two-time world champion who is among the top ranked badminton players in the world, used all his experience to cut loose and go past Karunaratne 21-10 in 21 at the end. “It was a tough hurdle and I tried my best against a world class champion.

But I hope to do perform better in the next match,” he told the media after the match.

Karunaratne will now meet Kevin Cordon of Guatemala in his second group ‘P’ match to be worked off on Friday at 7.30 pm local time (4 am SL time on Saturday).

The Lankan national champion’s last group match will be against Adrian Dziolko of Poland, ranked 58th in the world. It will be played on Sunday at 3.55 pm local time (12.25 am SL time on Monday).

Defending men’s singles badminton champion Lin Dan of China needed just 34 minutes to cleat his first hurdle today. He launched his triple Olympic crown campaign in style, crushing David Obernosterer of Austria in straight sets 21-5, 21-11 in their group ‘E’ first round match.

Karunaratne, who competed at the last 2012 Olympic Games, has been drawn in group ‘P’ in the men’s singles first round. Besides Karunaratne, the other shuttlers drawn in Group ‘P’ are Long Chen of China, Kevin Cordon of Guatemala and Adrian Dziolko of Poland.

Fourteen-time Sri Lanka national champion Karunaratne will play his first group match against China’s Long Chen at Riocentro Pavilion Four on Thursday at10.10 am local time (6.40 pm SL time). It will be the toughest of the three group matches for Karnaratne as he comes across the men’s singles bronze medallist of the London 2012 Olympic Games.

The Lankan lad’s second match in Group ‘P’ will be against Guatemalan Cordon on Friday at 7.30 pm local time (4 am SL time on Saturday).

Karunaratne’s last of the three Group matches will be against Polish Dziolko, scheduled for Sunday at 3.55 pm local time (12.25 am SL time on Monday). Dziolko, ranked 58th in the world, has been a member of the Polish senior badminton team since 2009.

“It is a tough contest but I will try my best to spring a surprise or two,” a determined Karunarane said on the eve of his first game. “I am glad to make it to my second successive Olympics and have been training hard. Irrespective of the ranking of my opponents, I will battle it out until the last minute. I am ready to face the challenge,” Karunaratne said.