Thomas and Uber Cup: Indian men off to a losing start
©Ajay Jayaram Facebook
India lost 2-3 to Thailand in their opening match of Group B in the Thomas and Uber Cup on Sunday at Jiangsu in China. India were off to a poor start in the tie with Ajay Jayaram losing a closely fought battle against Tanongsak Saensomboonsuk, and they never recovered from it in the match.
After losing the first game 16-21, Ajay Jayaram raised his game in the second and restored parity by winning it 21-12. However, Saensomboonsuk won the one-sided third game to give Thailand a 1-0 lead.
Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy took on Bodin Issara and Nipitphon Puangpuapech in the next match, and it was hard to separate both the teams in the first game. The first game was tied at 17-17, before the Thai pair won the last four points in a row. The Indian pair put up a disastrous performance in the second game and lost it, along with the match, 6-21.
Sai Praneeth cruised to comfortable win over his lowly ranked opponent Khosit Phetpradab 21-11, 21-16, and brought India back into the tie at 1-2. However, that glimmer of hope was taken away quickly in the fourth match of the contest when Akshay Dewalkar and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy lost 15-21, 21-14, 15-21 to Puavaranukroh Dechapol and Kedren Kittinupong.
This win gave Thailand an unassailable lead of 1-3 in the contest and although Sourabh Verma won his singles match against Adulrach Namkul 21-17, 16-21, 21-19 it did not alter the outcome of the contest .
Indian men will next face Hong Kong on Tuesday as they look to keep their hopes of qualifying from the group stage alive. Indian women will kick off their campaign tomorrow with the match against Australia in Group D.
