Press Trust of India
Kunshan (China), May 16: Indian eves made a fantastic start to their campaign at the Uber Cup badminton tournament by thrashing Australia 5-0 here Monday. The Indian eves won all the three singles and the two doubles matches at the Kunshan Sports Center Stadium here.
World No. 8 Saina Nehwal started the proceedings for India and after a brief struggle against World No. 74 Hsuan-Yu Wendy Chen, notched up a 22-20, 21-14 win to give India a 1-0 lead.
Two-time bronze medallist at World Championships, PV Sindhu then brushed aside Joy Lai 21-14, 21-9 in 25 minutes to make it 2-0 in India’s favour. The women’s doubles pair of Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa dished out a clinical performance to get across Wendy Chen and Gronya Somerville 21-9, 21-15 in a 28-minute match.
In the third singles, South Asian Games gold medallist, Ruthvika Shivani Gadde then hammered Tiffany Ho 21-5, 21-11 while N Sikki Reddy and Sindhu dismantled Leanne Choo and Lai 21-12, 21-12 to complete the 5-0 drubbing.
In the opening singles, Saina had opened a 5-0 lead early on but Chen narrowed it down to 7-8. The Indian once surged ahead to 14-7 but Chen slowly and steadily made her way back to catch up with her at 19-19. Saina, however, had the last laugh as she grabbed two points from 20-20 to pocket the first game.
In the second, Chen zoomed to a 13-7 lead but Saina reeled off nine straight points to turn the tables and didn’t look back after that. She allowed her opponent only one more point while closing out the game and the match.
India will take on Germany tomorrow in their next Group D match before they face Wednesday defending champions Japan. The top two teams from the group will qualify for the quarterfinals.
“Overall a satisfactory show,” national coach Pullela Gopichand told reporters. “We expected it to be a straight victory and this is the result we expected. But the tougher battles are ahead and we have to tie a few loose ends if we want to repeat our medal-winning act,” he added.
Between Saina and Sindhu, the latter looked the sharper of the two. With her cross-court smashes and delectable dribbles at the net, Sindhu was always in control of proceedings against Lai and never allowed her opponent any breathing space.