China crush India, send them home

Nanning (China), May 22 

India crashed out of the Sudirman Cup badminton championships after losing 0-5 to 10-time champions China in the second and final group match here today.

After going down 2-3 to Malaysia in their opening Group 1D match, India needed an extraordinary effort to get across the mighty Chinese but the shuttlers yet again produced a below-par performance to go down in a lopsided contest.

The gap between India’s mixed doubles pair of Pranav Jerry Chopra and N Sikki Reddy and Chinese combination of Wang Yilyu and Huang Dongping was evident once again as they went down 5-21 11-21 against the world No. 2 pair to trail 0-1.

Sameer Verma, whose straight-game loss to Malaysia’s Lee Zii Jia proved costly on Tuesday, once again took the court after Kidambi Srikanth suffered an injury during the practice sessions here. “Won’t be playing today due to an injury caused during practice. Will be backing the team for today’s all-important match,” Srikanth had tweeted ahead of the clash.

In Srikanth’s absence, Verma fought for an hour and 11 minutes in the men’s singles tie before losing 17-21 20-22 against Olympics champion Chen Long.

Satwiksairaj Rankireddy, who recently made a comeback after recovering from a shoulder injury, and Chirag Shetty were then given the task of taming world No. 7 Han Chengkai and Zhou Haodong but the Indian men’s doubles pair lost 21-18 15-21 17-21 to allow China take an unassailable 3-0 lead.

Saina Nehwal then went down 12-21 17-21 to All England champion Chen Yufei in  33 minutes, while world No. 3 women’s doubles pair of Chen Qingchen and Jia Yifan beat Ashwini Ponnappa and Sikki 21-12 21-15 as India sunk without a trace. — PTI 

Sudirman Cup
Results

• Men’s singles: Chen Long bt Sameer Verma 17-21 20-22
• Women’s singles: Chen Yufei bt Saina Nehwal 12-21 17-21
• Men’s doubles: Han Chengkai and Zhou Haodong bt Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty 21-18 15-21 17-21 
• Mixed doubles: Wang Yilyu and Huang Dongping bt Pranav Jerry Chopra and N Sikki Reddy 5-21 11-21
• Women’s doubles: Chen Qingchen and Jia Yifan bt Ashwini Ponnappa and Reddy 21-12 21-15