India had to suffer defeats in both Thomas and Uber Cup today in the last of the group matches. Men were shown their way out of the tournament losing all the ties which included a 5-0 thumping at the hands of Indonesia today. The women lost to Japan today but they had already booked their tickets to quarterfinals yesterday when they defeated Germany.
Indian women got off to a great start today as Saina Nehwal displayed a stellar show, defeating top notch Japanese shuttler Nozumi Okuhara in straight sets 21-18, 21-6.
Another great performance by PV Sindhu, beating A. Yamaguchi 21-11, 21-18 and India were 2-0 up, just a win away from victory.
This was not an easy task by any means, with Japan having great players in their ranks. The team of Jwala Gutta and N Sikki Reddy were defeated by the Japanese pair of Matsutomo and Takahashi 11-21, 8-21.
It was followed by Ruthvika Gadde losing to Sayaka Sato.
Indian pair of Ashwini Ponnappa and PV Sindhu had to win the last game as the things were tied 2-2. The Indian pair won the first set 21-15 against the team of Matsuo and Naito but had to suffer defeat in the remaining sets 19-21, 16-21.
While the women garnered praises for their spectacular performance despite losing, the men disappointed again. World No. 21 Ajay Jayaram was the first to play for India, losing in straight sets of 14-21, 12-21 to C Jonatan. This was followed by Manu Attri and Akshay Devalkar also losing in straight sets 18-21, 17-21.
Sai Praneeth lost the 3rd game to Ginting Anthony 21-18, 11-21, 15-21, ending India’s hopes of clinching the tie.
India lost the remaining inconsequential games as first the pair of Sumeeth Reddy- S Rankireddy and then Sourabh Verma lost their ties handing India an embarrassing 5-0 defeat.