India had a mixed day in the Thomas and Uber Cup, with the men's team losing to Hong Kong 3-2 and the women emerging victorious against Germany, with a 5-0 win at the Kunshan Sports Centre in China on Tuesday. India women have sparkled, registering thumping victories in the competition, as they defeated Australia 5-0 on Monday as well.
Saina Nehwal, who is India's best player in the singles arena, showed her skills again, as she got past her German opponent, Fabienne Deprez in straight games. PV Sindhu also won her second singles match in the 2016 Uber Cup, defeating Luise Heim, 21-7, 21-12.
Though the singles competition might have been dominated by India, the doubles pair of Ashwini Ponnappa and Jwala Gutta had to sweat it out in the middle. They lost the first game14-21, but showed some great character to win the last two games -- 21-9, 21-8 -- to help India defeat Germany, with two matches left to play.
Ruthvika Shivani Gadde also won her singles match against Yvonne Li in straight games. The last match of the tie saw India's second doubles pairing of Sindhu and Sikki Reddy complete the whitewash, making it 10 victories for India in a row in 2016 Uber Cup.
Australia and Germany have proved to be easy opponents for India, who have a huge task as they prepare to face Japan on Wednesday.
Earlier in the morning, Ajay Jayaram lost to Ka Long Angus in straight games, with the score reading 21-13, 21-12, in the first match of their tie against Hong Kong. Things looked even more difficult when the doubles pairing of Manu Attri and Sumeeth Reddy lost the second match of the tie as well. If India were to emerge victorious, they had to win the last three matches.
However, there was a ray of hope for India after Sai Praneeth played some brilliant badminton to register their first win, defeating Yun Hu in a thrilling encounter. Praneeth emerged victorious, with the score reading 23-21, 23-21.
Hence, another doubles pair of Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy was under huge pressure to win the match for India, and level the tie at 2-2. It was not to be as Hong Kong's Tsz Kit Chan and Cheuk Him Law sailed past the India shuttlers, winning 21-10 and 21-11.
With this result, India lost to Hong Kong, making the last singles match a dead rubber.
India's Saurabh Varma helped India register a win in the last match of the tie, showing some great skills on the court. Varma lost the first game, but came back to win the second and third game in grand style, This was the only match in the tie, which was stretched to three games, as the score read 17-21, 21-19, 21-9.
India face Indonesia in the Thomas Cup on Wednesday.
