India conquer Japan

In contrast, the Indian women could not push themselves in spite of an inspiring display put up by Aparna Popat, who upset world No 16 Lidya Djaelawijay of Indonesia, 11-5, 11-2 to give a fine start. The rest of the Indian girls just caved under pressure from the superior Indonesians to lose 1-4.

After the Japanese won their doubles against Jaseel P Ismail and Markose Bristow, Abhinn had to win his singles as leaving it to the last doubles would have meant putting pressure on Gopi and Vincent Lobo, who won in three games.

But the Allahabad lad was in full control of the situation right from the word go in the first game only to lose the initiative. In the second, he staged a remarkable recovery to tire out the Japanese, the game witnessing long rallies. In the crucial third game, Abhinn was just unstoppable. After leading 9-1, he allowed his rival just four more points before pulling through.

Gopi was comfortably placed in the first singles against Masuda at 7-2. But the Japanese, employing his powerful smashes, narrowed the lead before the Indian won 15-10.

The Japanese resumed his second game as a man possessed and ran up a 6-0 lead, thanks to Gopi’s negative play. With the crowd backing Gopi to the hilt, the Indian staged a remarkable recovery from 1-9 to 10-14. Gopi saved three game points and in the extended point game, the Indian served but the return by the Japanese was long. The way Gopi fought back had done a world of good to Kanetkar when he took on Hidetaka Earlier, China lost their first singles to beat Thailand 4-1 while Korea blanked out Singapore 5-0. In other Uber Cup matches, Hong Kong surprised Chinese Taipei 3-2, Korea routed Thailand 5-0 and Japan drubbed Singapore 5-0.

Results
Thomas Cup Second Stage League (Group Y): India bt Japan 3-2 (Pulella Gopi Chand bt Keita Masuda 15-10 15-14; Nikhil Kanitkar bt Hidetaka Yamada 15-6 15-9; Keita Masuda/ Tadashi Ohtsuka bt Jaseel Ismail/ Markose Bristow 15-11 9-15 15-0; Abhinn Shyam Gupta bt Kazuhiro Shimogami 8-15 15-10 15-5; Pulella Gopichand/ Vincent Lobo bt Yuzo Kubota/ Takuya Katayama 3-15 15-3 15-12.
Uber Cup (Group X): Indonesia bt India 4-1 (Lidya Djaelawijay lost to Aparna Popat 11-5 11-2; Eliza Nathanael/ Deyana Lomban bt PVV Lakshmi/ Madhumita Bisht 15-12 15-6; Ellen Angelina bt BR Meenakshi 11-9 11-3; Etty Tantri/ Cynthia Tuwankotta bt Jwala Gutta/ Shruti S Kurien 15-1 15-2. Yuli Marfuah bt Manjusha Kanwar 9-11 11-6 11-8).