India’s campaign at the Sudirman Cup ended on a disappointing note with a 1-3 loss to China in the quarterfinals on Thursday. The only Indian shuttler to be able to score a point of rampaging China was Saina Nehwal, who got the better of the world No. 3 in straight games in the Qingdao Sports Centre Gymnasium.
However, her victory failed to lift her colleagues’ confidence as they went down tamely to their Chinese opponents.
It was always going to be an arduous task to dent the Chinese wall for the Indians who entered the last eight of the prestigious tournament for the first time since its inception in 1989.
World No. 4 Saina scripted a convincing 21-15 21-11 victory over Xin in a 32-minute contest in the women’s singles to level the score after Rupesh Kumar and Sanave Thomas lost to their higher-ranked Chinese opponent in the first rubber.Rupesh and Sanave lost 15-21 14-21 to the world No. 5 men’s doubles pair of Yun Cai and Haifeng Fuin in a 29-minute encounter to hand over the advantage to China.
Leveled at 1-1, Commonwealth games bronze medallist P Kashyap took the court against world No. 3 Lin Dan. He lost 14-21 14-21. Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa were no match for Xiaoli Wang and Yang Yu and went down 8-21, 13-21 in the women’s doubles.
{{/usCountry}}Leveled at 1-1, Commonwealth games bronze medallist P Kashyap took the court against world No. 3 Lin Dan. He lost 14-21 14-21. Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa were no match for Xiaoli Wang and Yang Yu and went down 8-21, 13-21 in the women’s doubles.
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