Thomas and Uber Cup | India's campaign ends as both men and women team go down in quarters

India's badminton team faces tough competition in Chengdu, with both men and women falling short in quarterfinals.

Lakshya Sen continued his domination of Asian Games gold medalist Li Shi Feng and the rest of the Indian squad pushed overwhelming favourites and hosts China in all the matches but ended up on the wrong side of the 1-3 score line in the quarterfinals of the BWF Thomas and Uber Cup 2024 in Chengdu on Thursday.

The loss meant that India’s challenge in the competition came to an end as the women had lost to Japan by an identical margin earlier in the day.

With India’s top men’s singles player HS Prannoy making a comeback following some health issues and doubles star Satwiksairaj Rankireddy also returning after a shoulder injury, Indians were always the underdogs despite being the defending champions.

But the players took the fight to their opponents as HS Prannoy took the opening game against Shi Yu Qi before going down 15-21, 21-11, 21-14.

The world no. 9 later admitted that he was still getting back to his best and the long match a day earlier could have also played a part in the third game.

“We had a long match yesterday while China had an off day. It may have also played a part once the rallies got long in the third game. But I am happy with the way I fought and will take a lot of learning from this tournament,” he said.

The Chinese then extended their lead as Liang Wei Keng and Wang Chang got the better of Satwiksairaj and Chirag Shetty 21-15, 11-21, 21-12.