India faced a tough challenge against Chinese Taipei in their Group C opening tie of the Sudirman Cup, held at the Suzhou Olympic Sports Centre in China on Sunday.
Mixed Doubles
Tanisha Crasto and K Sai Prateek started on a positive note in the mixed doubles competition. They won the first set of their Indian campaign against world no. 30 Yang Po-Hsuan and Hu Ling Fang, 21-18. However, they couldn’t hold the lead and lost a tense second game 24-26 and the decisive third game 6-21.
Men’s Singles and Women’s Singles
HS Prannoy, India’s top-ranked men’s singles player, was defeated in straight games (21-19, 21-15) by world no. 5 Chou Tien Chen in the second match of the tie. Tien Chen handed Prannoy his sixth defeat.
Sindhu was then tasked with bringing India back into the tie, but it was always going to be a difficult task with her nemesis and former world number one Tai Tzu Ying standing across the net. The 27-year-old from Hyderabad, who hasn’t been in the best of form recently, put in a valiant effort after losing the first game. But Tai Tzu won in an hour and four minutes, 21-14, 18-21, 21-17. It gave Chinese Taipei a commanding 3-0 lead in the five-match series. Sindhu last defeated Tai Tzu on her way to winning the world championships in 2019. It was her 18th defeat to the Taipei player overall.
Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty fought hard before losing 13-21, 21-17, 18-21 to Lee Yang and Ye Hong Wei in the men’s doubles match in just over an hour, dropping India to 0-4.
No. 17 in the world Treesa Jolly and P Gayatri Gopichand then fought back from an early game loss to beat Lee Chia Hsin and Teng Chun Hsun in the final women’s doubles tie, preventing India from completing a clean sweep.
India to face Malaysia in second Group C match
India will face Malaysia, the Commonwealth Games mixed team champion, in their second Group C match on Monday. Malaysia defeated Australia 5-0 in their opening match to win the group. India will be hoping to bounce back from their defeat to Chinese Taipei and secure a win against Malaysia to keep their hopes of progressing in the tournament alive.
