India shuttlers end on a high
Suzhou (China), May 17
Already out of the knockout race, India signed off their campaign in the Sudirman Cup with a 4-1 win over Australia in their final Group C tie here today.
Placed in the group of death, India had lost 1-4 to Chinese Taipei and 0-5 against Malaysia — the two heavyweights of the game — to crash out of the world mixed team championships.
Against Australia, India did not have the best of starts as the mixed doubles pair of Sai Pratheek and Tanisha Crasto lost 21-17 14-21 18-21 against Kenneth Zhe Hooi Choo and Gronya Somerville.
HS Prannoy levelled the scores for India with a 21-8 21-8 win over Jack Yu in just 28 minutes. With nothing at stake, India fielded Anupama Upadhyaya in the women’s singles in place of PV Sindhu and the youngster didn’t disappoint, scoring a 21-16 21-18 win over Tiffany Ho. MR Arjun and Dhruv Kapila then beat Ricky Tang and Ryane Wang 21-11 21-12 in the men’s doubles to hand India an unassailable 3-1 lead.
