India conquer Chinese Taipei; win bronze

In the semi-finals,despite a good show by Pratul Joshi in the men’s singles,India lost by 0-3. In mixed doubles,Pei Tianyi and Ou Dongni outclassed K Srikanth and K Maneesha 21-13,21-11. Madhya Pradesh lad Pratul Joshi put up a brave front but eventually it was China’s Guo Kai who won the men’s singles match at 12-21,22-20,21-19. Chinese pair of Chen Zhoufu and Pie Tianyi defeated Venkatesh and Shivam Sharma 21-14,21-16 in the men’s doubles to win the tie at 3-0. Malaysia defeated Indonesia in its semi-final match by 3-1 to set up the title clash against China which will be held from 3.00 pm on Tuesday. In the quarter-finals held in the morning session,China defeated Hong Kong 3-1,India beat Chinese Taipei 3-0,Indonesia beat Japan 3-2 and Malaysia beat Thailand 3-0. The individual events starting with the singles matches will be organised from 9.00 am on Tuesday.

India can be on top: Thomas

Seasoned badminton coach Thomas John said that the way India played against Chinese Taipei today in the quarter-finals after being beaten by the Malaysians yesterday in a hard-fought match shows that the young talent in India has the ability to go on top but the approach needs to change.

John who also imparted coaching to the Indian team ahead of the championships said,“ Here when the players attain a lead they adopt a casual approach and then the opponent gets a chance to bounce back. This is not the case with a country like China. There the players always perform consistently. The coaches are also very strict there so they have this at the back of their minds that if they lose,they are going to face the coach’s ire.” Thomas John said that Indian players could have done better against China in the semi-finals but a couple of key players like Sameer Verma could not make an appearance in the tie as they were tired. He said that it was a positive sign for Indian badminton that India has been able to win a medal for the first time in the team event of the championships.