Despite defeats, Indian teams enter quarters

Alor Setar (Malaysia), Feb 9
The Indian men’s and women’s teams have qualified for the Badminton Asia Team Championship quarterfinals despite losing to their respective opponents here today. In the women’s event, PV Sindhu notched up the only win for India in their 1-4 loss to Japan. Sindhu extended her domination over world No. 2 Akane Yamaguchi with a straight-game win.
The Indian women finished second behind Japan with one win and one loss, but ahead of Hong Kong in Group W. The Sindhu-led squad had defeated Hong Kong 3-2 in their opening group tie. Taking the court first, Sindhu dished out an attacking performance to beat Yamaguchi 21- 19 21-15 in 36 minutes. The Indian now enjoys a 5-3 head-to-head record against Yamaguchi.
However, Sindhu did not get enough support from her teammates as Sri Krishna Priya Kudaravalli was no match for world No. 13 Sayaka Sato, losing the second singles 12-21 10-21 to help Japan draw level. Doubles specialist Ashwini Ponnappa was then tamed 14-21 12-21 by world No. 16 Aya Ohori in the third singles as Japan took a 2-1 lead.
It was then left to the doubles specialists to bring India back into the tie but both the Indian pairs went down after a good fight.
Men go down fighting

The men’s team lost to Indonesia 2-3 in a tight contest but still qualified for the quarterfinals from Group D. The Indians had beaten lower-ranked Philippines and Maldives in their earlier matches.
Kidambi Srikanth took the field first but, to the disappointment of the Indian camp, lost the match against Jonatan Christie 17-21 17-21. The men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Ranki Reddy and Chirag Shetty levelled the tie with a hard-fought 18-21 21-18 24-22 win over Mohammad Ahsan and Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo. Sai Praneeth then gave India the advantage with a 21-18 21-19 victory over Anthony Sinisuka Ginting in the second singles match. The Indians, however, were beaten by their opponents in the last two matches.