India women blanked 0-5 in Uber Cup, male shuttlers lose 2-3

India`s women shuttlers were blanked 0-5 by China in the Uber Cup (Asia Zone), while the men`s team went down 2-3 against Indonesia in the Thomas Cup.

New Delhi: Despite the presence of world number four Saina Nehwal, India`s women shuttlers were blanked 0-5 by China in the Uber Cup (Asia Zone), while the men`s team went down 2-3 after a valiant fight against Indonesia in the Thomas Cup in Macau on Wednesday.

India`s biggest hope, Saina suffered a narrow 19-21 19-21 defeat to world number six Yanjiao Jiang. Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponappa lost the doubles rubber 19-21 10-21 to Yunlei Zhao and Qing Tian. PV SIndhu was no match for Xuerui Li as she lost the third match 16-21 13-21. Prajakta Sawant and Pradnya Gadre lost the second doubles rubber 18-21 19-21 to Shu Cheng and Pan Pan. The story remained the same for Sayali Gokhale who lost the final rubber Xin (F) Liu 9-21 2-21. In the Thomas Cup too, India were off to a bad start as P Kashyap lost 7-21 15-21 to Simon Santoso in the first match. The duo of Rupesh Kumar and Sanave Thomas drew level after they saw of Alvent Yulianto Chandra and Hendra Aprida Gunawan 21-18 21-16 in the doubles rubber. Olympic champion Taufiq Hidayat helped Indonesia regain the lead after he thrashed Anand Pawar 21-16 21-13. India fell back back further after Akshay Dewalkar and Pranav Chopra lost the second doubles rubber 21-18 21-16 to Markis Kido and Hendra Setiawan to concede the tie. In the inconsequential fifth match, B Sai Praneeth eked out a hard-fought 21-13 15-21 9-21 win over Dionysius Hayom Rumbaka. PTI