Thomas & Uber Cup badminton: India’s challenge ends as men lose to Denmark in quarters
The Indian men were defeated 3-1 by Denmark while the women lost 3-0 to Japan in the last eight.
India’s challenge at the Thomas & Uber Cup ended as the men’s badminton team was knocked out by Denmark in the quarter-finals on Friday.
The doubles pair of Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy was the only one to take a point off the Danes at the Ceres Arena in Aarhus as India went down 3-1 in the best of five series.
India began the Thomas Cup tie with a loss as former world No. 1 Kidambi Srikanth was beaten by Tokyo Olympic champion Viktor Axelsen 21-12, 21-13, giving Demark a 1-0 lead.
Chirag-Satwik, however, helped India claw back into the contest, with a hard-fought win over Kim Astrup and Anders Skaarup Rasmussen.
The young Indian pair, who also represented the nation at Tokyo 2020, won the match 21-15, 17-21, 21-18 to level the score 1-1.
Denmark, however, restored their lead in the third contest as world No. 3 Anders Antonsen defeated B Sai Praneeth 21-8, 21-15.
Then, Mathias Christiansen and Frederik Søgaard sealed the deal for Denmark by prevailing over MR Arjun and Dhruv Kapila 21-16, 21-9, knocking India out of the Thomas Cup.
This was India’s first quarter-final appearance at the Thomas Cup in 11 years, having last reached the top eight in 2010.
Earlier, India’s women’s team also lost in the quarter-final of the Uber Cup, going to defending champions Japan.