Indian Men’s and women’s badminton teams start off with resounding wins in the Thomas and Uber Cup

The Indian badminton teams have had resounding wins to start their campaigns in the Thomas and Uber Cup. While the Men’s team swept past Germany with a 5-0 win in Group C in the Thomas Cup, the Women’s team were not far behind as they won 4-1 against Canada to start their campaign in the Uber Cup.

World Championship bronze medallist Lakshya Sen was sensational as he began his Thomas Cup campaign with a 21-16, 21-13 win over German shuttler Max Weisskirchen. India’s top doubles pairing of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty had to fight it out and toil hard to win against Jones Ralfy and Marvin Seidel. Despite all the pressure and fight the Indians came out on top with a  21-15, 10-21, 21-13 win over the Canadians.

World No.11 Srikanth Kidambi also fought hard and earned a very crucial win for the Indian team. He also had to fight against Kai Schafer in a three-set clash to win 18-21, 21-9, 21-11 after a very average start o the match. His win over Schafer allowed India to take a 3-0 lead.

MR Arjun and Dhruv Kapila prevailed over  Bjarne Geiss and Jan Colin Voelker with a 25-23 21-15 win as India continued their dominance in the Thomas Cup. World No. 23 HS Prannoy also had a great outing as he dominated his opponent Matthias Kicklitz with a 21-9, 21-9 win to complete the sweep.

Meanwhile, in the Uber Cup Group D match, double Olympic gold medallist P V Sindhu gave India a flying start against Canada with a 21-17 21-10 win over Michelle Li. She took just a little more than half an hour to finish off the match. However Indian women’s double pairing of Simran Singhi and Shruti Mishar as they lost 19-21 12-21 to Rachel Honderich and Kristen Tsai. The win allowed Canada to come back in the tie as they levelled the scoring to 1-1.

But in the reverse matches, the Indians had a great run as they won all of the next three matches. Aakarshi Kashyap showed great composure to beat Wen Yu Zhang 17-21 21-18 21-17 in women’s singles. It is a learning curve for the youngster and this win will give her some confidence going into the next game. The streak was maintained by the Indian pair of Tanisha Crasto and Treesa Jolly made it 3-1 with a 21-9 21-15 win over Catherine Choi and Josephine Wu. Lastly, Ashmita Chaliha fought tooth and nail to prevail over Rachel Chan with a 12-21 21-11 22-20 victory to help India win 4-1 against Canada.