India lose to China in Sudirman Cup

VANTAA: India went down 0-5 to China in their second Group A encounter of the Sudirman Cup mixed team badminton competition here on Monday. The second successive defeat means India are out of the race for the quarter-finals.

India, who had started the tournament with a 1-4 defeat to Thailand on the opening day Sunday, as China turned out to be too strong. India have put up a depleted side, playing without top singles players PV Sindhu and Saina Nehwal and the men's doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty.

The absence of Sindhu and Saina was again felt as India failed to win a single match against China. M.R. Arjun and Dhruv Kapila, who won a match against Thailand on Sunday, put up a decent fight before going down to China's Liu Cheng and Zhou Hao Dong 20-22, 21-17.

In the women's singles, Aditi Bhatt lost tamely 21-9, 21-8 to Chen Yi Fei while Sai Praneeth was beaten 21-10, 21-10, and the women's doubles pair of Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy lost in two games to Lei Wen Mei and Zheng Yu 21-16, 21-13.

In the last tie, Kidambi Srikanth and Rituparna Panda went down 21-9, 21-9 to China's Feng Yan Zhe and Du Yue in the mixed doubles as the match ended 5-0 in favour of the defending champions.

India now play hosts Finland in their last group match on Wednesday while China take on Thailand. IANS

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