Badminton
Thomas & Uber Cup: Indian men's and women's teams start campaign with resounding wins
In the Uber Cup Group D match, double Olympic gold medallist P V Sindhu gave a flying start to India against Canada
Indian Uber Cup Team
The Indian badminton teams began their Thomas and Uber Cup campaigns in emphatic fashion, thrashing Germany and Canada respectively on Sunday.
While the men's team won its 5-0 Group C Thomas Cup encounter, the women counterparts emerged 4-1 victorious in Group D Uber Cup face-off. World Championships bronze medallist Lakshya Sen started the proceeding in the men's event with an easy 21-16 21-13 win over world No. 64 Max Weisskirchen.
The doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirsg Shetty had to dig deep as they were stretched to a three gamer by Jones Ralfy Jansen and Marvin Seidel. But the Indians managed to prevail 21-15 10-21 21-13 in the match lasting close to an hour. World number 11 Kidambi Srikanth then eked out a 18-21 21-9 21-11 win over Kai Schafer after a sluggish start to give India an unassailable 3-0 lead in the Group C tie.
MR Arjun and Dhruv Kapila handed Bjarne Geiss and Jan Colin Voelker a 25-23 21-15 defeat in the second men's doubles tie as Indian continued its dominant display. HS Prannoy, ranked 23rd in the world, then hardly broke a sweat as he completed a 5-0 whitewash of Germany, with a 21-9 21-9 win over Matthias Kicklitz.
It was a perfect start for the Indian men's team, which is searching for its maiden medal at the tournament. No Indian men's team has ever reached the semifinals of the Thomas Cup. Last year, the men's team had signed off its campaign at the quarterfinal stage.
In the Uber Cup Group D match, double Olympic gold medallist P V Sindhu gave a flying start to India against Canada with a 21-17 21-10 win over Michelle Li in 33 minutes. Canada levelled the scores as the Indian doubles pair of Shruti Mishar and Simran Singhi lost 19-21 12-21 to Rachel Honderich and Kristen Tsai.
But after that reverse, the Indians won all the remaining three matches. Aakarshi Kashyap beat Wen Yu Zhang 17-21 21-18 21-17 in women's singles. 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 before Ashmita Chaliha completed the formalities with a 12-21 21-11 22-20 victory over Rachel Chan in women's singles.
