E-Paper
India swept aside by China
India suffered a 0-5 thrashing at the hands of formidable China in their opening group match of the Sudirman Cup mixed team badminton championship here on Sunday.
India suffered a 0-5 thrashing at the hands of formidable China in their opening group match of the Sudirman Cup mixed team badminton championship here on Sunday.
Only P V Sindhu could offer a semblance of a fight in her 21-19 16-21 14-21 women's singles loss to Wang Yihan while the four other Indians were outclassed by the Chinese.
The Group A match began with the mixed doubles contest which Tarun Kona and Ashwini Ponnappa lost in straight games to the pair of Zhang Nan and Zhao Yunlei 10-21 13-21 in just 29 minutes.
In the second tie, P Kashyap was no match for world number two Chen Long, who won 21-11 21-9 in men's singles.
The combination of Akshay Dewalkar and Pranaav Chopra gave a tough fight to Liu Xiaolong and Qiu Zihan in men's doubles before losing 23-25 18-21 while their women counterparts Ponnappa Ashwini and Gadre Pradnya lost 18-21 11-21 in women's doubles.
Without Saina, who is still recovering from a hairline fracture in her toe, it was going to be tough for India but Sidhu displayed a brilliant performance against world number Wang Yihan. Sindhu won the opening game and looked like there could be an upset on the card but the world number 13 Indian lost the plot later on to go down fighting in one hour and six minute match.
India play Indonesia in their second and last group tie on Monday.
