India settles for bronze after 0-3 loss to France in Thomas Cup

India’s men’s team finished with bronze at the 2026 Thomas & Uber Cup in Denmark after a 0-3 semifinal loss to France. Debutant Ayush Shetty, Kidambi Srikanth, and HS Prannoy fell in singles, with Lakshya Sen missing due to injury

Hyderabad: Indian men’s team will return from the Thomas & Uber Cup 2026 in Horsens, Denmark, with a bronze medal after going down 0-3 against France in the semifinals on Friday night.

The 2022 champions, who had upset Chinese Taipei in the quarterfinals, suffered a major setback ahead of their semifinal clash as their top singles player, Lakshya Sen, had to sit out due to an elbow injury.

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Debutant Ayush Shetty then played the first singles, and 2025 BWF World Tour Finals winner Christo Popov exploited his opponent’s relative inexperience to win 21-11, 21-9, putting India on the back foot.

World No 10 Alex Lanier extended France’s lead with a 21-16, 21-18 win over Kidambi Srikanth.

This meant HS Prannoy needed to win the third singles against Toma Junior Popov to give India a chance in the doubles matches.

However, he could not sustain the promising start and went down 19-21, 16-21, confirming India’s 0-3 loss.

Result:
Men: India lost to France 0-3

Ayush Shetty lost to Christo Popov 11-21, 9-21
Kidambi Srikanth lost to Alex Lanier 16-21, 18-21
HS Prannoy lost to Toma Junior Popov 19-21, 16-21