In a major blow, India crashed out of the Sudirman Cup mixed team badminton championship after going down 0-3 against 10-time champions China in their quarter-final clash here at the Gold Coast on Friday.
India began their last-eight clash with the mixed doubles event.
After comfortably winning the first set, the Indian duo of Ashwini Ponappa and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy slumped to a 21-16, 13-21, and 16-21 defeat at the hands of the Chinese pair of Lu Kai and Huang Yaqiong in a clash that lasted for almost one hour.
In the men’s singles event, Kidambi Srikanth also failed to rise up to the expectations and went on to suffer a 16-21, 17-21 loss against Chen Long in a 48-minute long quarter-final clash.
Meanwhile, the men’s doubles pair of Rankireddy and Manu Attri were outplayed 9-21, 11-21 by the Chinese duo of Fu Haifeng and Zhang Nan to end India’s chances of making it to the semi-finals.
The remaining day of the event will see Rio-Olympic silver-medallist PV Sindhu taking on HE Bingjiao in the women’s singles clash.
In the women’s doubles event, Ponappa and N. Sikki Reddy will face Bao Yixin and Tang Jinhua.
