India crashed out of Sudirman Cup mixed team badminton championship after getting thrashed by favourites China (3-0) at the Carrara Indoor Sports Stadium in Gold Coast, Australia, on Wednesday.
The China vs India quarterfinal tie began with the mixed doubles pair squaring off. The Indian pair of Ashwini Ponnappa and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy began on a positive note, winning the first game against Lu Kai and Huang Yaqiong 21-16. But from then on, it was downhill for the Indian pair as the Chinese combine stepped up the tempo, winning the match 16-21, 21-13, 21-16.
In the men’s singles, Kidambi Srikanth was completely outclassed by Chen Long, who won 21-16, 21-17 in just 48 minutes.
It was a similar for the Indian men’s doubles team of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty. In fact, outclassed would be an understatement as Rankireddy-Shetty pair lost to Fu Haifeng and Zhang Nan 21-9, 21-11 in just 29 minutes.
With China taking an unassailable 3-0 lead in the tie, the last two matches -- PV Sindhu’s women’s singles match against He Bingjiao and the women’s doubles match (Ashwini Ponnappa-N Sikki Reddy vs Yixin Bao-Jinhua Tang) -- were rendered as dead rubbers.
{{/usCountry}}With China taking an unassailable 3-0 lead in the tie, the last two matches -- PV Sindhu’s women’s singles match against He Bingjiao and the women’s doubles match (Ashwini Ponnappa-N Sikki Reddy vs Yixin Bao-Jinhua Tang) -- were rendered as dead rubbers.
{{/usCountry}}India progressed to the quarterfinals after Indonesia finished third despite defeating Denmark 3-2 in their last match of the Group D (preliminary round-robin stage) of the Sudirman Cup on Wednesday.
India, Denmark and Indonesia won one match each. But India qualified for the knockout stage on the basis of the number of games won. Denmark, having won six matches and lost four, topped the group, followed by India (5-5) and Indonesia (4-6).
On Tuesday, putting aside their dismal performance in their first tie against Denmark, India defeated Indonesia 4-1 in a do or die encounter which helped them to qualify for the quarters .