India lose to Malaysia, hopes hang in balance

Nanning, May 21

Sameer Verma suffered a shocking straight-game loss in men’s singles today as India were stunned 3-2 by a young Malaysia in a Group 1D match to jeopardise their hopes of reaching the knockout stage of the Sudirman Cup mixed team championships here.

The mixed doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Ashwini Ponnappa produced a brilliant performance to beat Goh Soon Huat and Lai Shevon Jemie 16-21 21-17 24-22 in an hour and 10 minutes in the opening match.

But India’s decision to field world No. 13 Verma instead of Kidambi Srikanth in the men’s singles backfired as the former couldn’t get going against Lee Zii Jia, losing 21-13 21-15 in 48 minutes.

PV Sindhu then steamrolled Goh Jin Wei 21-12 21-8 in 35 minutes to bring India back on track but the men’s doubles pair of Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy lost narrowly 22-20 22-19 to Aaron Chia and Teo Ee Yi.

Ashwini once again took the court — two hours after her mixed doubles match — alongside N Sikki Reddy but the women’s doubles pair couldn’t get the better of world No. 13 Chow Mei Kuan and Lee Meng Yean, losing 21-11 21-19 despite leading 19-15 in the second game.

Eighth-seeded India’s hopes will now rest on their next match when they take on China tomorrow. — PTI