Badminton
Badminton Asia Team C'Ships: India women face Hong Kong, men take on Japan in quarterfinals
The Indian women's team topped Group W, while the Indian men's team finished second behind China in its group. The women's team's quarterfinal tie starts at 7:30 AM IST, while men's team will play at 1:30 PM IST.
PV Sindhu and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty
The Indian men's badminton team will face Japan, while the women's team will take on Hong Kong in their respective quarterfinal ties at the Badminton Asia Team Championships in Shah Alam, Malaysia, on Friday.
In the day's fixture, the Indian women's team led by PV Sindhu will go up first against Hong Kong.
The women's team will be confident of a solid show in the quarterfinals and making it to the semifinals.
The Indian team defeated China in its solitary group stage tie 3-2. For India, Sindhu and debutant Anmol Kharb won the women's singles matches against Han Yue and Wu Luoyu, while Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand won a hard-fought three-gamer against Li Yijing and Luo Xumin.
The Hong Kong women's team, meanwhile, beat Kazakhstan 5-0 but lost by an identical margin against Indonesia. As the second-placed side, it booked a place in the quarterfinals.
However, the Indian men's team, who will face Japan in the quarterfinals later on Friday, has had a contrasting campaign so far. It beat Hong Kong 4-1 in its first Group A tie, with Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, and MR Arjun and Dhruv Kapila winning their men's doubles matches, and Lakshya Sen and Kidambi Srikanth bagging their men's singles matches.
In its second and final group tie, India could not negate the Chinese challenge as it went 2-3 down in a nail-biting contest despite HS Prannoy and Lakshya Sen winning their men's singles matches.
India, however, played the tie without Satwik-Chirag and Srikanth as it was already assured of a place in the quarterfinals.
India's opponent Japan has so far been unbeaten, with it beating Myanmar and Singapore 5-0, and Thailand 4-1.
Friday's tie is going to be an exciting affair as both sides will field their strongest possible teams.
Top names like Kento Momota and Kenta Nishimoto will be ready to challenge India.
The Indian women's team's tie against Hong Kong will start at 7:30 AM IST, while the men's team tie against Japan will be held at 1:30 PM IST.
