Thomas Cup & Uber Cup: Indian men start campaign with win against Germany

BANGKOK: The Indian men's team started its campaign in the Thomas Cup finals in Bangkok, Thailand by thrashing lowly Germany 5-0 in its opening Group C match on Sunday.

India, who have Canada and Chinese Taipei besides Germany in the four-team Pool C, blanked Germany with World Championship bronze medallist Lakshya Sen giving them a perfect start by beating Max Weisskirchen 21-16, 21-13.

The top doubles pair of Satwaksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty made it 2-0 for India by beating Jones Ralfy Jansen and Marvin Seidel in tough three games 21-15, 10-21, 21-13. Kidambi Srikanth too needed three games to subdue Kai Schaefer, coming back from a game down to beat 18-21, 21-9, 21-11 to make 3-0.

M.R Arjun and Dhruv Kapila defeated Bjarne Geiss and Jan Colin Voelker in straight games, 25-23, 21-15 to make it 4-0. And H.S Prannoy rounded off the match in an emphatic manner for India with a 21-9, 21-9 win against Matthias Kicklitz.

India will next play Canada in their second match in the group on Monday.

Indian women's team began its Uber Cup campaign in style with a 4-1 win over Canada in the Group D opener.

In the opening singles match, PV Sindhu comfortably beat Canada's Michelle Li 21-17, 21-10 in 33 minutes. However, Shruti Mishra and Simran Singhi lost the first doubles match 19-21, 12-21 in 36 minutes to Rachel Honderich and Kristen Tsai. Aakarshi Kashyap restored India's lead with a gritty 17-21, 21-18, 21-17 win over Wen Yu Zhang in the second singles in 50 minutes. Tanisha Crasto-Treesa Jolly pair sealed the tie by beating Catherine Choi-Josephine Wu 21-9, 21-15 in 25 minutes. In the final singles tie, Ashmita Chaliha beat Rachel Chan 12-21, 21-11, 22-20. Agencies

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