Thomas & Uber cup: Asian giants make India suffer

Aarhus (Denmark), October 14

Already through to the quarterfinals, the Indian men’s badminton team tasted defeat at the hands of the formidable China in its last group match of the Thomas Cup, while the women’s team crashed out of the Uber Cup after losing to Japan in the quarterfinals here today.

Only the doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty could manage a win in the men’s team championship tie as they beat He Ji Ting and Zhou Hao Dong 21-14 21-14 in a 41-minute contest.

Kidambi Srikanth began the day for India with a 12-21 16-21 loss to Shi Yu Qi.

Sameer Verma gave a tough fight before losing his singles match 21-14 9-21 22-24 to Lu Guang Ju as India trailed 1-2.

The second doubles pair of MR Arjun and Dhruv Kapila went down fighting 24-26 19-21 to Liu Cheng and Wang Yi Lyu in 52 minutes. In the last singles match, Kiran George lost to Li Shi Feng 15-21 17-21.

On the women’s side, Malvika Bansod was no match to world No. 5 Akane Yamaguchi as she lost 12-21 17-21. The pair of Tanisha Carsto and Rutaparna Panda then suffered a 8-21 10-21 defeat to Yuki Fukushima and Mayu Matsumoto as Japan took a 2-0 lead.

Aditi Bhatt was outplayed 16-21 7-21 in the second singles by Sayaka Takahashi as Japan sealed the best-of-five tie. — PTI

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