India win in Uber Cup, lose in Thomas Cup

New Delhi: Indian women began their campaign in Uber Cup with a 5-0 whitewash of South Africa while the men's team lost 1-4 to 13-time champions Indonesia in Thomas Cup badminton in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on Monday.

Indian men, however, can take heart from their performance against Indonesia.

World No. 33 Parupalli Kashyap came close to upsetting Athens Olympic champion and World No.5 Taufiq Hidayat who rallied to beat the Indian 14-21, 21-19, 21-18 in a match that lasted slightly over an hour at Putra Stadium.

In the first men's doubles, Sanave Thomas and Akshay Dewalkar went down to Olympic champions Markis Kido and Hendra Setiawan 11-21, 13-21 in 21 minutes.

India registered their first win when Sony Dwi Kuncoro retired trailing 9-15 in the second game against Arvind Bhatt. Sony, ranked 11th in the world, had won the first game 21-19.

Rupesh Kumar and Viliyaveetil Diju fought valiantly in the second doubles match, but went down 21-14, 13-21, 11-21 against Alvent Yulianto Chandra and Hendra Aprida Gunawan.

With Indonesia taking an unassailable lead, Anup Sridhar lost to Simon Santoso 8-21, 17-21 in the third singles.

Coach Pullela Gopichand said India can take a lot of positives from the tie.

"We had our chances. Kashyap played a fantastic game. He came close to beat a player of the calibre of Taufiq Hidayat. It would give him a lot of confidence for the rest of the tournament.

"We also had opportunities in the second doubles match. Arvind, too, was in good form and came back well to win the second game before Sony conceded the match," Gopichand told IANS.

Gopichand said they could play their main doubles combination of Rupesh and Sanave in the remaining matches.

It was Indonesia's second victory after beating Australia 5-0 and they secured a top four seeding position in the quarterfinals.

In contrast, it was a cakewalk for the Indian women's team against South Africa.

Saina Nehwal gave the perfect start, thrashing Kerry-Lee Harrington 21-8, 21-8 in just 18 minutes.

Aditi Muttatkar made it 2-0 with an emphatic 21-5, 21-6 win against Stacey Doubell.

In the third singles, Trupti Murgunde beat Jade Morgan 21-10, 21-9

In the women's doubles, Shruti Kurian and Aparna Balan got the better of Doubell

and Harrington 21-13, 21-10. Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa made it a clean sweep with a 21-8, 21-12 win over Michelle Edwards and Morgan.

The Indian men's team will now take on Australia while the women's team will play South Korea on Tuesday