Indian shuttlers win but tough task ahead

Bangkok, May 21

The Indian men’s and women’s badminton teams dumped a lowly Australia 5-0 and 4-1, respectively, on the second day of the Thomas and Uber Cup but the road to the quarterfinals still remains a difficult one.

While the women’s team, led by Saina Nehwal, notched up a dominating 4-1 win against Australia in the second Group A match of the Uber Cup, the men’s team blanked their Australian opponents 5-0 in the Thomas Cup later in the day.

After going down 1-4 to Canada in the opening match, Saina and Co. seemed to get their act together as they won all their matches, except the first women’s doubles.

World No. 10 Saina saw off Hsuan-Yu Wendy Chen 21-14 21-19 in a 35-minute opening match to give India a 1-0 lead. However, Meghana Jakkampudi and Poorvisha S Ram suffered a 13-21 16-21 loss to Gronya Somerville and Renuga Veeran. Vaishnavi Reddy Jakka, 16, then dumped Jennifer Tam 21-17 21-13 to once again hand India the lead in the contest.

Sanyogita Ghorpade and Prajakta Sawant then defeated Louisa Ma and Ann-Louise Slee 21-19 21-11 in the second women’s doubles match to help India take an unassailable 3-1 lead. Anura Prabhudesai, the 19-year-old from Goa, then brushed aside Zecily Fung 21-6 21-7 in 18 minutes to seal the contest 4-1 for India. India’s qualification for the knockout stage will now depend on Wednesday’s match against top seeds and five-time champions Japan, who have fielded a full-strength squad.

Prannoy, Praneeth win

The Indian men’s team, spearheaded by world No. 9 HS Prannoy, also brought some cheers back to the camp after their disappointing outing against France on the opening day. 

Prannoy, who didn’t take to the court against France, started the proceedings for India, defeating Anthony Joe 21-19 21-13 in 32 minutes in the first singles. The doubles pair of Arjun MR and Shlok Ramchandran then streamrolled the Aussie combo of Matthew Chau and Sawan Serasinghe 21-11 21-15 in 30 minutes to make it 2-0 in favour of India. 

B Sai Praneeth then took just 20 minutes to see off Jacob Schueler 21-9 21-6 in the second singles.

Arun George and Sanyam Shukla overcame Simon Wing Hang Leung and Raymond Tam 21-16 20-22 21-8 in the second doubles match, while young Lakshya Sen defeated Kai Chen Teoh 21-5 21-14 in the third singles as India sealed the contest 5-0. The men’s team will have to beat heavyweights China tomorrow to keep quarterfinals hopes alive. — PTI