India men stun China, women blanked by Japan in Badminton Asia Team Championships
HYDERABAD: The Indian men on Thursday beat China for the first time in a team event before the women lost to Japan in the Badminton Asia Team Championship.
The Indian men defeated a depleted China 3-2 in the five-match tie comprising three singles and two doubles. The home team won all three singles but went down in doubles.
Both Indian men and women have already qualified to the quarterfinals.
In the first men’s singles match, captain Kidambi Srikanth, currently the top ranked player for India at 9, gave a good start to his team with a superb 21-11, 21-17 win against China’s Houwei Tian.
It was a keen contest between the two as Tian, ranked eighth, put up a competitive show. Srikanth, however, prevailed over his rival.
In the second singles between India’s Ajay Jayaram and China’s Zhengming Wang, the Indian came out on top winning 22-20, 15-21, 21-18.
Though Wang (world no.11) was well ahead of Jayaram in terms of ranking, the 25th-ranked Indian came up with a spirited performance to tame his rival.
It was an exciting contest between Jayaram and Wang with both of them leaving no stone unturned to gain advantage. With both winning one game each, the third and decisive game turned out to be a battle of wits.