Thomas Cup badminton: Indian men stun Indonesia to win maiden title

The Indian men’s badminton team lifted the Thomas Cup title for the first time ever with a resounding 3-0 win over Indonesia in the final in Bangkok, Thailand on Sunday.

The high-flying Indian team beat the defending champions Indonesia to win the Thomas Cup 2022 trophy in their maiden final appearance. India have been bronze medallists in 1952, 1955 and 1979.

Wins from Lakshya Sen, Kidambi Srikanth and the duo of Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy guided India to the historic triumph.

India began their maiden Thomas Cup final tie at the Impact Arena with world championship bronze winner Lakshya Sen, ninth in the badminton world rankings, taking on world No. 4 and Tokyo 2020 bronze winner Anthony Ginting.

Lakshya Sen went into the match with a 1-0 head-to-head advantage, having beaten Ginting at the German Open in March. However, the 20-year-old Indian had only won once in the ongoing Thomas Cup and lost thrice.

The young Indian went toe-to-toe with the Indonesian in the early exchanges, but Ginting switched gears to win 12 straight points and pocket the opening game with ease.

In the second game, Lakshya Sen made a much more aggressive approach and even upped his defence, which helped level the score and force a decider.

Despite trailing in the opening half of the third game, Lakshya Sen dug deep to churn out some brilliant winners and matched Ginting’s immaculate net game. Sen eventually prevailed 8-21, 21-17, 21-16 to put India ahead in the tie.

Then, the doubles team of Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy produced a brilliant come-from-behind win against Mohammad Ahsan and Kevin Sukamuljo to put India firmly in the driver’s seat.

After going down in the opening game, Chirag-Satwik came up with a herculean effort in the second, saving three match points to win and take the contest into the decider.

The Indian duo carried the momentum into the third game and raced ahead to a two-point lead at the final interval. The Indonesian pair threw the kitchen sink at the Indians but Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy held through to win 18-21, 23-21, 21-19.

The third rubber saw world championship silver medallist Kidambi Srikanth beat Jonatan Christie in comfortable fashion to guide India to the historic win.

Kidambi Srikanth, ranked 11 in the world, cruised to an easy win in the first game but faced a strong resistance from world No. 9 Jonatan Christie in the second game.

The Indonesian produced a remarkable run to take the lead towards the end and even had a game point opportunity. But Kidambi held his nerves and found his groove to see out a 21-15, 23-21 victory.

Denmark and Japan were the Thomas Cup 2022 bronze medallists.

Earlier on Friday, the women’s Indian badminton team was knocked out in the quarter-finals of the Uber Cup.