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.
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
