Thomas & Uber Cup 2024: Favourites off to strong starts in Chengdu as badminton world team championships begin

By ZK Goh

4 min|

Picture by www.ivsy.cn

There were no surprises to be had on the first day of badminton's world team championships, the 2024 BWF Thomas & Uber Cup Finals, on Saturday (27 April).

The higher-ranked team won in all 12 matches across both events in Chengdu, People's Republic of China, with all but two matches being decided in 5-0 whitewashes.

Hosts and perennial favourites China, as well as men's powerhouses Indonesia and Denmark as well as Japan in the women's tournament, all enjoyed straightforward victories.

China's men recorded five straight-games victories over Australia, with all their big names including world number two Shi Yuqi and world number five Li Shifeng in action; their women enjoyed similar success over Singapore even with Olympic champion Chen Yufei not selected for the match.

Meanwhile, Indonesia defeated England 5-0 in the Thomas Cup, with Anthony Ginting and Jonatan Christie each notching up straight-games wins. Malaysia beat Hong Kong, China 5-0 too, although not without a stiff fight; Lee Zii Jia needed 45 minutes to see off Lee Cheuk Yiu 21-18, 21-18 while Leong Jun Hao was pushed the distance by Ng Ka Long Angus 17-21, 21-12, 21-15 in 61 minutes.

With Algeria naming only a four-strong squad, their Thomas Cup clash against Denmark saw the three singles rubbers played before the two doubles, meaning the tie had already been decided before the doubles got on court. World number one Viktor Axelsen, world number four Anders Antonsen, and former top-10 player Rasmus Gemke each needed 27 minutes or fewer to win their matches, with Axelsen dropping only 11 points and Gemke just eight in utterly dominant wins.

Meanwhile, the Japanese women had a similar situation against the lowest-ranked team in the Uber Cup, Uganda. Even with Yamaguchi Akane rested for this tie, all five individual matches were completed in under a speedy 22 minutes, with all three singles rubbers over in exactly an hour on court. Uganda only scored 43 points across all five rubbers in the tie.

Uber Cup reigning queens Republic of Korea, too, were in the same situation against Mexico. Even without world champion An Seyoung and world number 13 Kim Ga-eun, who were each rested, the Mexicans were no match for their experienced opponents, with none of the five matches going more than 27 minutes.

Defending champions India got their Thomas Cup campaign off to a wobbly start as opponents Thailand put the first point on the board in their contest through men's singles world champion Kunlavut Vitidsarn, who beat H.S. Prannoy 22-20, 21-14.

The world number three pairing of S Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty then needed 65 minutes and three games against the first Thai doubles to level the match, before another three-game, 63-minute marathon for Lakshya Sen against Panitchaphon Teeraratsakul – who had been involved in the doubles rubber immediately before too. But ultimately M.R. Arjun / Dhruv Kapila and Kidambi Srikanth closed out the hard-fought tie for a 4-1 win.

The tournaments are available to stream live on Olympic Channel via Olympics.com and the official Olympics app for mobile devices (territorial restrictions may apply).

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