India have been ousted from the Sudirman Cup after losing to South Korea on Wednesday, 4-1 in Group 1D of the biennial event. Malaysia and Korea are the two nations from the group to progress to the quarterfinals of the competition.
After losing to Malaysia 3-2, the Indian team were required to defeat one of the title favourites Korea to reach the quarterfinals of the competition, but Korea proved to be a huge task for the Indians with only Saina Nehwal winning her singles match against Bae Yeon Ju, who stretched the Indian to three sets.
The Indian team did bring about some changes in their team to take on Korea with Kashyap Parupalli replacing Kidambi Srikanth, but the Korean singles player, Son Wan Ho showed some fine skills to defeat Parupalli as well.
The Indian did show some resistance in his singles fixture as he won the first set, but he looked tired as the game progressed and was outclassed in the later stages of the game.
With the men's doubles pairing of Akshay Dewalkar and Pranaav Jerry Chopra losing to the Korean doubles pair earlier, the onus fell on the women's doubles pair from India -- Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa -- to keep India's hope alive.
The Indian pair did raise the hopes of the Indian team winning the first set 18-21 against Chang Ye Na and Jun Kyung Eun. But soon, the Korean pair began to showcase their dominance in the second and third set, which they won 21-12 and 21-12.
Despite a spirited effort, the Indians finished second best in women's doubles. With it, India's hopes of reaching the knockout phase was also done with, hence the last game of the series (mixed doubles) was a dead rubber.
The Koreans won the last game as well against the Indian mixed doubles pair of Manu Attri and Sikki Reddy in straight sets with the score reading, 21-12 and 22-20.
