The Indian shuttlers thumped Singapore 4-1 in Group D to start their campaign at the 2017 Badminton Asia Mixed Team Championships on a winning note at Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam on Wednesday.
Team India registered a win in each of the men’s singles, women’s singles, men’s doubles and women’s doubles with the only exception being the mixed doubles where the World No. 14 pair of N Sikki Reddy and Pranaav Jerry Chopra went down to Yong Kai Terry Hee and Wei Han Tan.
Considering that the latter are ranked just one rung below the fancied Indian duo, the match was always supposed to be competitive and could have swung either way. The first game turned out to be a very tight affair where the Singaporeans just managed to edge the Indians 23-21.
They did not relent in the high-octane second game and wrapped up the match, 23-21, 21-17 to put Singapore 1-0 up. That would eventually turn out to be the solitary victory of the day for their team as India came storming back to grab a win in each of the next four categories.
Sameer Verma continued his fine run after starting the 2017 season with the Syed Modi International title. The World No. 25 took 34 minutes to deliver a 21-9, 21-16 blow on the 169th ranked Kean Yew Loh and put his team back on the track.
In the men’s doubles, Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy teamed up for a splendid performance. The India No. 1 pair needed just 29 minutes to pummel the 30th ranked pair of Danny Bawa Chrisnanta and Hendra Wijaya, 21-12, 21-17.
In the women’s singles, India saw a mature display from the country’s No. 3 shuttler, Rituparna Das. The 20-year-old has been steadily climbing up the ranks for the past few months and was even crowned the national champion this year.
The 58th-ranked Das lived up to the expectations as she upset the World No. 28 Xiaoyu Liang, 23-21, 21-18.
Ashwini Ponnappa, the most experienced member of the contingent, then put up a brilliant show of resilience alongside Sikki Reddy in women’s doubles. The two, who finished runners-up at the Syed Modi International last month, came back from a game down to beat the combine of Ren-Ne Ong and Jia Ying Crystal Wong, 19-21, 21-17, 21-17.
