Thomas and Uber Cup: Saina Nehwal-led Indian women's team pick up dominating win over Australia

Bangkok: Indian women’s badminton team, led by Saina Nehwal, notched up a dominating 4-1 win over lowly Australia in the second Group A match of the Uber Cup Final. After going down 1-4 to Canada in the opening match, Saina and Co. seemed to get their act together as they won all the matches, except the first women’s doubles. [caption id=“attachment_4431347” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Saina Nehwal. AFP[/caption] World No 10 Saina started the proceedings as she saw off Hsuan-Yu Wendy Chen 21-14, 21-19 in a 35-minute opening match to give India a 1-0 lead. However, Meghana Jakkampudi and Poorvisha S Ram suffered a 13-21, 16-21 loss to Australia’s Gronya Somerville and Renuga Veeran within half an hour to concede the advantage. Vaishnavi Reddy Jakka, 16, then dumped Jennifer Tam 21-17, 21-13 to once again bring India back in the contest. Sanyogita Ghorpade and Prajakta Sawant then defeated Louisa Ma and Ann-Louise Slee 21-19, 21-11 in the second women’s doubles match to help India take an unassailable 3-1 lead. Anura Prabhudesai, the 19-year-old from Goa, then brushed aside Zecily Fung 21-6, 21-7 in 18 minutes to seal the contest 4-1 for India. India’s qualification for the knockout stage will depend on their next match against top seeds Japan on Wednesday.