Sudirman Cup: India go down 1-4 to Chinese Taipei in opener after PV Sindhu, HS Prannoy lose

India suffered a 1-4 defeat to Chinese Taipei in its Group C opening tie in the Sudirman Cup at Suzhou Olympic Sports Centre in China on Sunday.

Tanisha Crasto and K Sai Prateek started on a positive note in the mixed doubles competition, but they ran out of steam in the end, losing 21-18, 24-26, 6-21 to world no. 30 Yang Po-Hsuan and Hu Ling Fang.

Sai Pratheek and Tanisha Crasto won the first set of their Indian campaign, mixed doubles match against world no. 30 Yang Po-Hsuan and Hu Ling Fang, 21-18. They couldn't hold the lead, however, losing a tense second game 24-26 and the decisive third game 6-21.

HS Prannoy, India's top-ranked men's singles player, was defeated in straight games (21-19, 21-15) by world no. 5 Chou Tien Chen in the second match of the tie. Tien Chen handed Prannoy his sixth defeat.

Sindhu was then tasked with bringing India back into the tie, but it was always going to be a difficult task with her nemesis and former world number one Tai Tzu Ying standing across the net.

The 27-year-old from Hyderabad, who hasn't been in the best of form recently, put



in a valiant effort after losing the first game, but Tai Tzu won in an hour and four minutes, 21-14, 18-21, 21-17.

It gave Chinese Taipei a commanding 3-0 lead in the five-match series. Sindhu last defeated Tai Tzu on her way to winning the world championships in 2019. It was her 18th defeat to the Taipei player overall.

Sindhu, whose best result this season has been a final appearance at the Spain Masters, looked far more polished in her overall game, fighting back in the second and third games after losing the first.

Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty fought hard before losing 13-21, 21-17, 18-21 to Lee Yang and Ye Hong Wei in the men's doubles match in just over an hour, dropping India to 0-4.

No. 17 in the world Treesa Jolly and P Gayatri Gopichand then fought back from an early game loss to beat Lee Chia Hsin and Teng Chun Hsun in the final women's doubles tie, preventing India from completing a clean sweep.

India will face Malaysia, the Commonwealth Games mixed team champion, in their second Group C match on Monday. Malaysia defeated Australia 5-0 to win the group.