BWF Thomas Cup Finals: India clean sweep Germany 5-0 in opening tie

Bangkok: The Indian team on Sunday defeated Germany by 5-0 in their opening tie of the BWF Thomas Cup Finals 2022 here in Bangkok. The Group C fixture saw all Indians winning thier contests against the German men’s team. Starting the tie was India’s star shuttler Lakshya Sen. After recovering from the early jitters in […]

Bangkok: The Indian team on Sunday defeated Germany by 5-0 in their opening tie of the BWF Thomas Cup Finals 2022 here in Bangkok.

The Group C fixture saw all Indians winning thier contests against the German men’s team.

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Starting the tie was India’s star shuttler Lakshya Sen. After recovering from the early jitters in first game, the world No. 9 didn’t looked back. The change of sides in second game only helped the Indian as he cruised to a comfortable 21-16, 21-13 win over world No. 64 Max Weisskirchen and gave India a 1-0 lead. India’s top doubles pair of Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy were made to work hard against Germany’s Ralfy Jansen and Marvin Seidel.

Despite taking the first game 21-15, the Indian pair saw firm resistence from the Germans in second game. Jansen and Seidel fought back in game 2 to force a decider. With match balanced on a knife’s edge, Indians upped their ante as they eventually crossed the finish line with a 21-15, 10-21, 21-13 scoreline. The worlds silver medallist Kidambi Srikanth then defeated Kai Schaefer to give India an unassailable lead of 3-0 in the tie.

After an edgy start to game 3, Indian world No. 11 found his rhythm just at the right time as Schaefer had no answers for his variety of shots as Srikanth completed a come-from-behind 18-21, 21-9, 21-11 victory in what was an hour-long affair.

Then in the 4th match of the tie, the first game was a scrap to the finish as India’s M.R. Arjun/Dhruv Kapila edged out Germany’s Bjarne Geiss and Jan Colin Voelker 25-23 in the opening game. The second one was much easier as the Indians won the match 25-23, 21-15.

In another dead rubber match, HS Prannoy overcame Matthias Kicklitz 21-9, 21-9 in straight games to wrap up a 5-0 clean sweep for India over Germany in the opening Group C Thomas Cup fixture.