Uber Cup: Indian women's team bows out after losing to Japan in quarter-finals

Aarhus (Denmark): The Indian women’s badminton team crashed out of the Uber Cup after losing to Japan in the quarter-finals on Thursday while the men completed their group engagements in the Thomas Cup with a defeat to China. The men’s team, which is already through to the quarter-finals, suffered a 1-4 defeat in their last group match , setting them up against Denmark in the last-eight stage on Friday. Competing without top stars like Olympic medallist P V Sindhu and hampered by the injury-forced ouster of Saina Nehwal, the Indian women were outplayed by their Japanese opponents, who claimed the tie by establishing a 3-0 advantage. Malvika Bansod was no match for World No 5 Akane Yamaguchi as she lost 12-21, 17-21 in the first match that lasted 34 minutes. The pair of Tanisha Crasto and Rutaparna Panda then suffered an 8-21, 10-21 defeat against the duo of Yuki Fukushima and Mayu Matsumoto as Japan took a 2-0 lead. It was the same story for Aditi Bhatt as she was outplayed 16-21, 7-21 in just 29 minutes in the second singles by Sayaka Takahashi as Japan sealed the best-of-five tie. 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 beat 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. Sameer Verma gave a tough fight to Lu Guang Ju but eventually lost his singles match 21-14 9-21 22-24 after one hour and 23 minutes as India trailed 1-2. The other doubles pair of M R Arjun and Dhruv Kapila went down fighting 24-26 19-21 to Liu Cheng and Wang Yi Lyu in 52 minutes before Kiran George lost to Li Shi Feng 15-21 17-21 in the 43-minute singles match. The defeat against China was the first for the men’s team in the tournament. It had beaten the Netherlands 5-0 on Sunday before notching up a victory against Tahiti by an identical margin on Tuesday to qualify for Thomas Cup quarterfinals for the first time since 2010.