Thomas And Uber Cup: Indian Shuttlers Struggle In Group Match, Saina Nehwal Loses Her Opening Tie

India men and women badminton teams struggled in their opening Group A match of the Thomas and Uber Cup Final on Sunday. Both teams suffered a similar 1-4 loss to France and Canada which could hamper their chances of qualifying for the knockout stage. The men's doubles team comprising of Arjun MR and Ramchandran Shlok lost to the French pair of Bastian Kersaudy and Julian Maio 13-21, 16-21. B Sai Praneeth gave India a winning start after beating Brice Leverdez 21-7, 21-18 to take a 1-0 lead. Praneeth was the lone winner in India's Group A match against France. In the other men's singles match, Sameer Verma lost to Lucas Corvee 19-21, 22-20, 18-21.

India's men's doubles pair of Arun George-Sanyam Shukla lost 10-21, 12-21 to the French pair of Thom Gicquel-Ronan Labar. Lakshya Sen also lost his match 20-22, 21-19, 19-21 against France's Toma Junior Popov.

In their other clash against Canada, Saina Nehwal went down fighting to Canada's Michelle Li 21-15, 16-21, 16-21. Vaishnavi Reddy Jakka also lost to her Canadian counterpart Rachel Honderich 11-21, 13-21.

However, women's doubles pair of Meghna Jakkampudi and Poorvisha S Ram beat Michelle Tong-Josephine Wu 21-19, 21-15.

In another women's singles match, Sri Krishna Priya Kudaravalli lost to Brittney Tam 11-21, 15-21 while the Indian women's doubles pair Sanyogita Ghorpade-Prajakta Sawant lost 15-21, 16-21 to Rachel Honderich-Kristen Tsai.