Uber Cup: India lose to Japan in quarter-finals

New Delhi, October 15, 2021

The Indian women's badminton team crashed out of the Uber Cup after losing to Japan in the quarter-finals on Thursday in Aarhus, Denmark.

In the first match of the quarter-final tie, Malvika Bansod lost her match to world number five Akane Yamaguchi 12-21, 17-21. Then the pair of Tanisha Carsto and Rutaparna Panda went down against Yuki Fukushima and Mayu Matsumoto 8-21, 10-21 and this gave Japan a 2-0 lead in the encounter.

Aditi Bharat later lost her match against Sayaka Takahashi and, following this, Japan went on to win the five-match affair.

Whereas, in the Thomas Cup match, only the doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty could manage a win in the men's team championship tie as they defeated He Ji Ting and Zhou Hao Dong 21-14 21-14 in a 41-minute contest.

The win by Rankireddy and Shetty duo boosted the confidence of the Indian team after a struggling Kidambi Srikanth began the day for India with a 12-21 16-21 loss to Shi Yu Qi in 36 minutes.

IANS