NEW DELHI: India’s campaign at the Badminton Asia Team Championships ended in disappointment on Friday as both the women’s and men’s teams crashed out in the quarterfinals.The defending champions’ women’s team collapsed after losing 0-3 to second-placed China and the absence of star shuttler PV Sindhu proved costly.
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India did not get off to a good start as World No. 42 Tanvi Sharma, who had impressed earlier in the tournament, lost in straight games to World No. 10 Gao Fang Jie and struggled to match the opponent’s pace and power. In the doubles, Gayatri Gopichand and Treesa Jolly battled hard against world number four Jia Yi Fan and Zhang Shu Xian, but went down in two close matches after letting advantages slip away in both. Facing elimination, Rakshitha Ramraj battled for 69 minutes in the second singles before losing in three games to seal India’s exit and end their title defence.The men’s team also bowed out that day after a 1-3 defeat to Korea, hampered by the absence of key players Lakshya Sen and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy. Lakshya was rested due to back pain while Satwik was unavailable due to personal reasons. Ayush Shetty suffered a heartbreaking loss in the opening singles, missing a few match points in an 84-minute match against Yoo Tae Bin. The makeshift doubles pair of Chirag Shetty and Hariharan Amsakarunan then lost in straight games. Kidambi Srikanth briefly revived India’s hopes with a straight games win in the second singles, but a second doubles defeat to Pruthvi Krishnan and K Sai Pratheek sealed victory for Korea.
