India rout Canada as France stun China at Thomas and Uber Cup
BANGKOK: The Indian men’s team continued its superb run in the Thomas Cup Finals with another thumping 5-0 win, blanking Canada in a Group C match in Bangkok on Monday.
India had started their campaign with a 5-0 win against Germany and on Monday continued the good work despite the absence of World Championship bronze medallist Lakshya Sen. The Indian team think tank decided to rest Lakshya Sen and brought in Priyanshu Rajawat for the third singles.
Kidambi Srikanth took the court for the first singles match but went down in the close first game against Brian Yang before recovering to win the next two games easily, giving India a 1-0 lead with a 20-22, 21-11, 21-15 win.
Srikanth took an early lead in the first game, going ahead 4-1 before Yang caught up with him at 4-4. Scores went neck and neck till 12-12 before Srikanth went ahead at 16-14 but the Canadian again caught up at 18-18 again and went on to win 22-20. Yang took an early lead at 3-0 before Srikanth caught up with him at 8-8. Srikanth then won seven consecutive points and went on to win the game 21-11 to make it 1-1. In the decider, Srikanth took lead but Yang caught up with him at 5-5 and then at 8-8 before surging ahead to 14-9 and 20-14 before sealing victory at 21-15.
The doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shety made it 2-0 for India by beating Jason Anthony Ho-shue and Kevin Lee 21-12, 21-11 in just 29 minutes.
HS Prannoy then made it 3-0 for India when he defeated BR Sankeerth 21-15, 21-12 in 42 minutes as India sealed the tie. The second doubles pair of Krishna Prasad Garaga and Vishnuvardhan Goud Panjala beat Adam Dong and Nyi Yakura 21-15, 21-11 and Rajawat completed the 5-0 victory when he beat Victor Lai in three games, 21-13, 20-22, 21-14.
The second victory in the four-team Group C in which Chinese Taipei is the other team. India and Chinese Taipei will now clash to decide the group topper ater both teams registered identical 5-0 victories against both Germany and Canada.
FRANCE’S POPOV WINS: Reigning champions China faced an unexpected challenge from the young French team on the second day of the tournament.
French challenger Christo Popov made China’s Lu Guang Zu pay for every shot before the world number 25 wrested a win 25-23, 24-26, 21-15 in a match that lasted just under two hours.
Elsewhere in the men’s, Denmark were untroubled by the competition from Algeria and quickly won the field.
World number one Viktor Axelsen was first up in the morning and made swit work of opponent Youcef Sabri Medel 21-9, 21-11, ending the game in 20 minutes.
Following his compatriot with equal efficiency, world number three Anders Antonsen beat Algerian Mohamed Abderrahime Belarbi 21-5, 21-8.
In the women’s Uber Cup, Thailand had a batle on their hands against Malaysia, but ended the bout 3-1.