Sudirman Cup 2023 badminton: India go down 4-1 to Chinese Taipei in opener
PV Sindhu stretched Tai Tzu Ying to three games but lost. The women’s doubles duo of Gayatri Gopichand-Treesa Jolly registered India’s only win on the day.
Badminton
India’s campaign at the Sudirman Cup 2023 badminton tournament got off to a rocky start as the team suffered a 4-1 defeat to Chinese Taipei at the Suzhou Olympic Sports Centre in China on Sunday.
The Indian badminton team, who qualified for the tournament after winning bronze at the Asian mixed team championships earlier this year, fielded a strong squad for the Sudirman Cup opener.
Tanisha Crasto and K Sai Prateek, India’s mixed doubles pair, were up against world no. 30 Yang Po-Hsuan and Hu Ling Fang in the first of the five-match tie.
The Indian duo took the lead by winning the first game but conceded the second game after squandering a matchpoint opportunity at 21-20. The Indian team could not sustain the intensity in the decider and eventually lost the contest 21-18, 24-26, 6-21.
HS Prannoy, India’s top-ranked men’s singles badminton player at world No. 9, took the court against world No. 5 Chou Tien Chen for the second rubber.
HS Prannoy went into the first break with a three-point cushion but Chou Tien Chen upped the ante to win the first game. The second game proved to be a one-sided affair with Chou Tien Chen winning the match 19-21, 15-21.
In the battle of Olympic silver medallists and a must-win match for India, PV Sindhu mounted a comeback against Tai Tzu Ying after losing the first game but eventually went down 21-14, 18-21, 21-17.
The loss handed Chinese Taipei an unassailable 3-0 lead. It was also PV Sindhu’s 18th loss against the former world No. 1 shuttler in 23 meetings.
Asian men’s doubles champions Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty then lost to Lee Yang and Wang Chi-Lin, the reigning Olympic champions, in a similar fashion. The Indian pair, ranked world No. 5 in men’s doubles, won the second game after losing the first but went down in the decider to lose the contest 21-13, 17-21, 21-18.
Commonwealth Games bronze medallists Gayatri Gopichand and Treesa Jolly beat Lee Chia Hsin and Teng Chun Hsun 15-21, 21-18, 21-13 in the women’s doubles encounter and helped India avoid a 5-0 scoreline.
India will face Commonwealth Games mixed team champions Malaysia next on Monday before going up against Australia on May 17.
India have never won a medal at the Sudirman Cup. Quarter-final finishes in 2011 and 2017 are India’s best results in the biennial mixed-team badminton event.