Female shuttlers representing India secure historic first medal at Badminton Asia Team Championships

By
Raktim Nandi
-
4
India
Indian women defeated Hong Kong 3-0.

With a dominating 3-0 win over Hong Kong, female shuttlers representing India have confirmed a medal at Badminton Asia Team Championships.

India
PV Sindhu, Ashwini Ponappa, Tanisha Crasto, and Ashmita Chaliha defeated their Hong Kong opponents.

INDIA DEFEATED HONG KONG 3-0 TO SECURE HISTORIC FIRST MEDAL

Indian women faced their Hong Kong counterparts following their upset victory over China. Olympic medalist PV Sindhu faced Happy Lo Sin-Yan in the first matchup. Sindhu won the first set with ease, trumping Lo 21-7. Lo returned the favour, almost with some fight shown by Sindhu, in the second set, beating Sindhu 21-16. A comfortable 21-12 win by Sindhu in the final set provided India their first win.

 

In the second match, Ashwini Ponappa and Tanisha Crasto represented India against Yeung Nga-Ting and Yeung Pui-Lam. The Hong Kong duo managed to trouble the Indians, before Ponappa and Crasto sailed to a somewhat comfortable 21-10 victory in the first set. The second set was comparatively harder, but the Indians yet again triumphed 21-14 to win the match.

With the victories by Sindhu and the Ponappa-Crasto duo, India was at advantage, needing a single win to secure a historic medal. Ashmita Chaliha faced Yeung Sum-Yee in the third match of the contest. The 24 year old from Guwahati completed her job rather comfortably, defeating her opponent 21-12, 21-13.

INDIA HAS SECURED THEIR SPOT AT BOTH UBER AND THOMAS CUPS

With this victory, India has advanced to the semi-finals of Badminton Asia Team Championships, thus securing a medal. This is the first medal for Indian women in the history of this tournament.

Indonesia has followed India to reach the semi-finals of the prestigious event. Their victory over Malaysia 3-0 echoed India’s victory over Hong Kong, although all three matches in the former matchup went to three sets, with Indonesian women triumphing in all three encounters. With this, the Uber Cup slots from Asia have also been filled – this tournament being the official competition for Asian teams to secure their spots in the Uber Cup and the Thomas Cup.

Indian men have already qualified for the Thomas Cup, because of their trophy-winning heroics in the last edition. The women representing India, while securing a historic first medal, have also secured their spot at the Uber Cup.

Four more teams will compete for the remaining two semi-final spots. They are: China, Japan, Chinese Taipei, and Thailand.

READ MORE: Ramkumar Ramanathan continues dream run, shocks top-seeded Nordi to reach QF of Bengaluru Open

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR