The men’s team led by Tanongsak Saensomboonsuk earned themselves a chance of making it to the quarter-finals of the Thomas Cup with a 3-2 Group B victory over India.
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Ho Yen Mei won the first set 24-22 in the final match against Anna Thea Madsen but suffered consecutive 21-13 scorelines in the second and third set to hand Denmark an important win.
Praneeth’s heroics were, however, rendered futile soon after when the teenage duo of S Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty was easily overpowered by Chan Tsz Kit – Law Cheuk Him 21-10 21-11 in a 24-minute contest.
In doubles action, Hong Wei and Zheng Siwei swept Lopez Andres and Luis Ramon Garrido 21-12, 21-15, and Li Junhui and Liu Yuchen topped Munoz and Castillo, 21-3, 21-9 in 32 minutes flat.
Sam Parsons lost out to Wei Feng Chong 21-10, 21-10 in England’s second singles match.
Elsewhere, in the women’s Uber Cup, South Korea thrashed both United States and Mauritius 5-0 to go through, with Chinese Taipei also not dropping a game against the same opponents to book their passage into the knock-out stage. After beating Australia by the same margin yesterday, the women’s team led by Saina Nehwal continued their impressive run in the tournament winning by a points margin of 244-161. Sindhu was even more dominant, losing only 19 points, and beat Luise Heim 21-7, 21-12.
Ruthvika Shivani Gadde beat Tiffany Ho 21-5, 21-11 in the third singles match.
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The onus was on the doubles pairs to make it another 5-0 win, and they did not disappoint. The doubles pair Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa got past Hsuan-Yu Wendy and Gronya Somerville 21-9, 21-15. However the tightest match of the day was left for last, when N. Sikki Reddy and PV Sindhu took Issabel Herttrich and Franziska Volkmann. Despite leading 18-16 at one point, Sindhu-Reddy faced match points as the Germans won 4 points in a row to lead 20-18.
