India go down to Korea in Asia Mixed Team C’ship

QINGDAO, (China) Feb 13: Indian shuttlers went down to South Korea 2-3 in a Group D tie of the Badminton Asia Mixed Team Championship, but they had already made it to the quarterfinal after finishing second in the pool here on Thursday.
India, who had made a sizzling start on Wednesday defeating Macau 5-0, fought till the very end before the men’s doubles pair of MR Arjun and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy lost the deciding rubber in straight games to Jin Yong and NA Sung Seung.
The mixed doubles pair of Dhruv Kapila and Tanisha Crasto started the proceedings by winning opening game 21-11, but lost the next two 12-21 15-21 to go down in 56 minutes.
India’s top-seeded women’s player here Malvika Bansod found world No. 19 Sim Yu Jin a very tough opponent to handle, as the youngster, runner-up in the 2022 edition of the Syed Modi International, went down without a fight 9-21 10-21 in just 27 minutes.
Chennai shuttler Sathish Karunakaran, however, pulled one back following a hard-fought win over Cho Geonyeop 17-21 21-18 21-19 in one hour 12 minutes.
Before the women’s doubles pair of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand, ranked ninth in the world, brought India on an even keel following a 19-21 21-16 21-11 win over Kim Min Ji and Kim Yu Jung.
The deciding fifth game, saw the men’s doubles pair of MR. Arjun and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy fight tooth and nail before losing to Sung Seung and Jin Yong 14-21 15-23 in 53 minutes.
On Wednesday Chirag Shetty had paired up with Arjun to prevail over Chin Pon Pui and Kok Wen Vong of Macau in men’s doubles.
India will play Japan in the quarterfinals and the winner of the contest will be assured of at least a bronze medal. (PTI)