Asia Badminton Team Championships: India's campaign ends after men lose to China, women ousted by Indonesia

Alor Setar: The Indian men’s and women’s teams crashed out of the Badminton Asia Team Championships after losing to China and Indonesia respectively in the quarter-finals on Friday. [caption id=“attachment_4150563” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] PV Sindhu and Kidambi Srikanth. Getty[/caption] The women’s team, which took the field first, went down to Indonesia 1-3 with Olympic medallist PV Sindhu emerging as the lone Indian to taste success. She beat Fitriani Fitriani 21-13, 24-22 in the first singles. It was all downhill for India from there on as they lost the next three matches. Greysia Polli and Apriyani Rahayu defeated Ashwini Ponnappa and Sikki Reddy 21-5, 21-16 in the first women’s doubles clash. In the second singles, Hanna Ramadini breezed past Priya Kudaravalli 21-8, 21-15. The second doubles sealed the tie for Indonesia as Anggia Shitta Awanda and Mahadewi Istarani beat Sindhu and Sanyogita Ghorpade 21-9, 21-18. In the men’s quarterfinal match, India lost to formidable China 1-3 with Kidambi Srikanth being the only Indian winner. The highest ranked Indian beat Shi Yuqi 14-21 21-16 21-7 in the first singles. The advantage given by Srikanth was frittered away as the Indians lost all the remaining matches to end their campaign in disappointment. The doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Ranki Reddy and Chirag Shetty lost to He Jiting and Tan Qiang 17-21 18-21 before B Sai Praneeth went down fighting against Qiao Bin 21-9 11-21 17-21 in the second singles to hand China a 2-1 lead. The second Indian pair of Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy gave a tough fight to Han Chengkai and Zhou Haodong but lost 21-14 19-21 14-21.