Mixed luck for India in Thomas/Uber Cup draw

Hosts India had mixed luck in the draw of the BWF Li-Ning  Thomas and Uber Cup with the men finding themselves in the ‘Group of Death’, while the women managing a considerably easier group.

The draw for the prestigious team championship, to be held in Delhi from May 18-25, was conducted here on Sunday in the presence of Badminton World Federation COO Thomas Lund, Badminton Association of India president Dr Akhilesh Das Gupta and chief national coach Pullela Gopi Chand among others.

According to the draw, Indian men have been placed in Group C along with Malaysia, Korea and Germany with the top two teams from each group qualifying for the quarterfinal stage.

“I guess ours is the toughest group. We have Malaysia, Korea and Germany against whom we are expecting good matches. It is going to be challenging in both singles and doubles. Our group has world no 1 player from Malaysia. But we have to also take in to consideration that our players have beaten the Korea & Germany No 1. Thus, I would say that everyone has a fair chance of qualifying,” said one of India’s future star B Sai Praneeth after the draw.

While Malaysia boasts of world number one Lee Chong Wei in singles, the Koreans and German’s are known to rely on their doubles combinations in team championships.

While the men have their task cut out, the Indian women would have heaved a sigh of relief when Li Ning Marketing Director Chen Zhiben unveiled India’s name in Group C of the Uber Cup draw.

Thailand, Canada and Hong Kong are the other teams in the group and India would definitely fancy advancing to the knock out stage given that the team boasts of two top-10 singles players.

Gopi Chand echoed the same sentiments when he said, “I think it’s an even draw in both the Cups. We have good chance of qualifying to the next stages even though it is going to be tough for everyone. In the Uber Cup, Thailand is going to be challenging opponent but we should sail through. For the Thomas Cup, I would say it’s going to be a tough competition but hope we qualify to the next round.”

 India’s women representative at the ceremony, Sindhu could not hide her happiness after being slotted in a better group than the men counterpart and said they would go do the distance in home conditions.

“It’s a good draw for us. We will be playing in home conditions and will give our full effort. Obviously its not going to be easy as we have Ratchanok (world champion Ratchanok Intanon) representing Thailand in our group and many other tough opponent. However Saina & me along with the doubles team will give our best,” she added.

This is the first time that the BWF has done away with the qualifying stage and raised the number of teams participating in the tournament from 12 to 16. The teams qualified on the basis of their world rankings with defending champions China and hosts India getting a direct entry.

Grouping

Thomas Cup

Group A- Indonesia, Thailand, Nigeria, Singapore

Group B- Japan, Denmark, Hong Kong, England

Group C- Malaysia, Korea, Germany, India

Group D- China, Chinese Taipei, Russia, France

 

Uber Cup

Group A-China, Chinese Taipei, England, Russia

Group B- Korea, Indonesia, Australia, Singapore

Group C- Thailand, India, Canada, Hong Kong

Group D- Japan, Denmark, Malaysia, Germany

Tough draw for host shuttlers in India Open

Indian hopes of ending the title drought in the $250,000 Yonex Sunrise India Open Super Series badminton tournament that begins in New Delhi from April 1 would hinge on the two women’s stars – Saina Nehwal and P V Sindhu – overcoming a stiff draw and the top three Chinese stars.

The draw for the fourth edition of the competition was released yesterday and the Indian contingent would definitely feel hard done.

London Olympics bronze medallist Saina, seeded eighth here, begins her campaign against Austrian Simone Prutsch and should sail through till the quarterfinals where she is likely to meet world number 3 Yihan Wang of China.

While Saina should be relatively safe till the last eight stage, Sindhu faces All England champion Shixian Wang in the first round. The lanky Indian would, however, take heart from the fact that she has a 3-0 head-to-head record against the Chinese opponent.

If the two Indian stars manage to maintain an unbeaten run, they could face each other in the semifinals.

The men’s singles players have an uphill task to even move beyond the first round with P Kashyap facing sixth seed Zhengming Wang, B Sai Praneeth takes on seventh seed Pengyu Du and national champion K Srikanth faces Japan’s Takuma Ueda in their respective opening round encounters.