Thomas & Uber Cup: Men defeat England 5-0 to prepare for Indonesia

India, the defending champions, easily defeated England 5-0 in their Group C match here Thursday, cruising to the Thomas Cup knockout round.

After winning their first match 4-1 against Thailand, India won their next match to go to the quarterfinals.

India took a 1-0 lead as HS Prannoy defeated Harry Huang 21-15 21-15 to go back to winning ways.

“Giving the team a head start is really important because it gives them a good boost to go ahead.” After his match, Prannoy said, “It is really important to finish the matches clinically. You saw against Thailand, one match was bad for us.”

In the first doubles match, Ben Lane and Sean Vendy pushed the star duo of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty to three games before they eventually prevailed 21-17 19-21 21-15 in an hour and five minutes.

With a 21-16 21-11 win against Nadeem Dalvi, the former world number one Kidambi Srikanth gave India an unstoppable 3-0 advantage.

“I’m happy with how both of my matches in the tournament have gone.” Players are under a lot of pressure to win. I believe I have faced somewhat simpler opponents so far. However, we will now be up against stronger opponents, so I must give it my all,” Srikanth said. Regarding his current performance, Srikanth stated: “I’m performing well, but I can’t win the games.” People will undoubtedly contrast my performance in 2021 and 2022. Then, I was in my twenties.

Then, MR Arjun and Dhruv Kapila’s second doubles team easily defeated Rory Easton and Alex Green 21-17 21-19.

To finish it off, 24-year-old Kiran George defeated Cholan Kayan 21-18 21-12 in the final match.

In their last group match tomorrow, India will play record 14-time champions and group leaders Indonesia. — PTI

At the Paris Games, seven Indians will participate.

New Delhi: Based on their Olympic Games qualifying rankings, seven Indian shuttlers, including former world champion PV Sindhu, have officially qualified for the Paris Games in four different categories. Even though Sindhu and the top men’s singles shuttlers, HS Pranoy and Lakshya Sen, have been guaranteed seats in the Olympics, the formalities were finished today, the deadline established by the International Badminton Federation (BWF).

The top-16 shuttlers in both the men’s and women’s singles categories, as determined by their Olympic Games qualifying rankings as of the deadline, secure their spots in the quadrennial championship match. In the men’s singles, Sindhu finished in 12th position, while Prannoy and Sen came in ninth and thirteenth, respectively. Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, who finished third in the Olympic qualifying cycle, are among the nation’s top medal contenders in the men’s doubles division.