BWF Thomas Cup: Indian men’s badminton team fail to defend title, lose to China in quarterfinals

The Indian men’s badminton team’s BWF Thomas Cup title defence came to an end in the quarterfinals when the Indian team endured a heartbreaking 3-1 loss to China on Thursday.

Although Lakshya Sen managed to pull one back for India, the Chinese team were a stronger opponent overall and won the tie 3-1.

HS Prannoy was the first to bite the dust when he lost to World No. 2 Shi Yuqi 21-15, 11-21, 14-21. Armed with a 1-0 lead, the Chinese doubles pair of Liang Wei Keng and Wang Chang sent India’s top doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty crashing down 15-21, 21-11, and 12-21 in another gruelling encounter. Although the Indian doubles pair forced the decider, it was just one-way traffic in the third game, with the Chinese players calling the shots.

However, Lakshya pulled one back when he beat Li Shifeng 13-21, 21-8, 21-14 after losing the first game. The young Indian made sure to cover the court well and read Shifeng’s game plan well to launch a calculated assault.

The win gave the Indian bench some relief and it was evident in Lakshya’s celebration as he let out a roar, a racquet flip and ran to embrace his teammates, his coach and his father on the sidelines.

However, the second doubles encounter between Dhruv Kapila-Sai Pratheek and Hen JT-Ren XY was the final nail in India’s coffin, as the Chinese pair won 21-10, 21-10 to send their country into the semi-finals.

The World No. 11 pair were clinical in their display and the unranked Indian pairing was found wanting on most occasions as they went down to an identical score line in quick time.

The Indian team went into the contest on the back of a 1-4 defeat against Indonesia in a Group C last league match on Wednesday. This is the second time the Indian team lost to China, after their 2-3 loss to the same opponent in the 2023 Asian Games in Hangzhou.