Thailand trounce Netherlands; Robertson announces retirement

A file photo of Nathan Robertson

A day after scoring a famous, come-from-behind victory, underdogs Netherlands were shown their place by a strong Thailand team in a Group B match of the Uber Cup tie. On Sunday, Netherlands had recovered from a 0-2 deficit against Chinese Taipei to pull off a 3-2 win, but they were given no chance of a repeat by Thailand, led by three-time junior world champion Ratchanok Intanon.

Most of the matches on day two at the Thomas and Uber Cup Finals ended in convincing victories for the stronger teams, but Germany’s women – minus their stalwart Juliane Schenk – were troubled by Australia in a 3-2 result. The final, dead rubber went in favour of Australia after Germany had sealed the tie in the fourth match.

The big news of the day was the retirement of Nathan Robertson, England’s star doubles player. The former mixed doubles World Champion and Olympic silver medallist, playing alongside Chris Langridge in a group A Thomas Cup tie against Indonesia, fought well but could not rescue the tie for his side. Langridge and Robertson went down in three tough games to Mohd Ahsan/ Alvent Yulianto and Indonesia sealed the tie.

Earlier, Simon Santoso had given them a 1-0 lead with an easy win over Rajiv Ouseph. The English doubles pair of Chris Adcock/ Andrew Ellis equaled the tie with a three-game win over veteran Markis Kido/ Hendra Setiawan, but Taufik Hidyat restored the lead beating Carl Baxter, and Ahsan and Yulianto nailed the tie for Indonesia. The final singles match too went Indonesia’s way, with Dionysius Hayom Rumbaka breezing past Ben Beckman 21-11 21-13.

Results:

Thomas Cup: Malaysia bt South Africa 5-0; Germany bt USA 5-0; Indonesia bt England 4-1; Russia bt New Zealand 5-0

Uber Cup: Denmark bt USA 4-1; Germany bt Australia 3-2; Indonesia bt South Africa 5-0; Thailand bt Netherlands 5-0