Sudirman Cup 2023 badminton: India blanked by Malaysia; out of quarter-final race

The Indian badminton team’s hopes of making the quarter-finals at the Sudirman Cup 2023 ended after losing 5-0 to Malaysia at the Suzhou Olympic Sports Centre in China on Monday.

Having lost to Chinese Taipei in the opening Group C encounter on Sunday, India are now out of the race to make the knockout rounds. India will face Australia in their final group tie on Wednesday but even a win won’t help them make the top two.

Both Chinese Taipei and Malaysia have won two ties each and will advance to the final eight from Group C.

The first of the five-match tie against Malaysia saw India’s mixed doubles pair of Dhruv Kapila and Ashwini Ponnappa lose 21-16, 21-17 to Goh Soon Huat and Lai Shevon Jemie.

The Indian pair got off to a slow start and conceded the first game 21-16. In a bid to mount a comeback, Dhruv Kapila and Ashwini Ponnappa started the second game strongly but the Malaysian duo absorbed the pressure and gave Malaysia a 1-0 lead.

In the second rubber, world No. 22 Kidambi Srikanth took the court against world No. 8 Lee Zii Jia in the men’s singles match.

Kidambi Srikanth raced to an early 4-1 lead but was unable to sustain the intensity as Lee Zii Jia fought back to take a 11-8 lead going into the first break. The Malaysian then won four points on the trot and romped home to take the first game 21-16.

In the second game, Kidambi Srikanth was no match for Lee Zii Jia as the Malaysian took the match 21-16, 21-11.

With India trailing 2-0, the onus was on two-time Olympic medallist PV Sindhu to get the team back in the hunt. The former world champion faced world No. 30 Goh Jin Wei in a must-win tie.

PV Sindhu stormed to an 11-5 lead in the first game and despite some resistance from Goh Jin Wei, the Indian snuffed out the challenge from the Malaysian to take the first game.

The momentum, however, shifted in the second game. The Malaysian first outclassed the higher-ranked PV Sindhu to force a decider before sealing the 53-minute match with a hard-fought win in the third game. The final score read 14-21, 21-10, 22-20 in Wei’s favour.

Wei’s win handed Malaysia an unassailable 3-0 lead and ended India’s knockout chances.

In the final two matches, India’s Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty lost their men’s doubles match against Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik by a 21-18, 21-19 margin while Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand went down 21-15, 21-13 to Pearly Tan and Thinaah Muralitharan in women’s doubles.

Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand had registered India’s only win against Chinese Taipei on Sunday.