Ayush Shetty gave the clearest sign that Indian badminton in the future will pivot on his potential, as he fetched India its first point of the Thomas Cup group tie against China at Horsens, Denmark.
Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty saved five match points against arch rivals Liang Weikeng and Wang Chang in the decider but could not avoid a heartbreaking 13-21, 21-13, 24-26 defeat in the first doubles as India went down 0-2. Lakshya Sen had earlier found the errors going for the wretched baseline, at the worst moments possible, as he allowed Li Shifeng to sprint away from 13-12 in the decider to flatline, 19-21, 21-8, 21-16.
Lakshya Sen later told BWF, “Had my chances in first game. Started well to win second. Kept in mind to not give Shifeng easy short lifts and opportunity to finish. China was our first strong opponent. There was no pressure from coaches to win matches, because we had already qualified for quarters (on Friday). (Winning tournament is the target). We are looking to get into momentum and give our 100 percent.”
HS Prannoy was battling 11-8 in the third set after being 20-22, 17-19 down. Down but not out.
India’s only positive was Ayush. Lining up for the second singles, the Indian lost the opener 21-17, after he reached 10-7 with a mammoth 448 kph smash. But the Chinese southpaw is far too attacking, direct and deep hitting, and took the set lead.
In the second, as had been the Chinese pattern of losing the second set, Weng Hong Yang took the foot off the pedal. Buy it was here that Ayush regained his confidence. The dominance was established at the net, where he intercepted smartly, and used the deceptive backhand flicks to scatter the shuttle and wrongfoot Weng.
It wasn’t an all out attack of smashes, for Weng is defensively sturdy. So, Ayush smartly used the big hit as a mere set up in the decider. It carried enough sting to buy him time to place the followup in the right areas – mostly deep on the opposite flank of the smash. He reached 11-10 with a similar push to Weng’s forehand fore court.
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One thing was clear – the leftie angles weren’t bothering him.
Weng was snapping at his heels at 14-12 in the decider, after Ayush missed a push on the back line. But then came a beauty – playing at the net, Ayush skimmed one backhand wavy deception over the net completely foxing Weng. He would increase the lead to 16-13, with a crosscourt half smash. The disguises kept oozing with one to the back court to take him to 19-15. Weng, not quite expecting artistry and having come prepared for aggression, looked a little boggled as India pulled one back from the form player.
Sen tends to spend the early Thomas Cup time on court, convincing the world that he’s in terrible form. Playing Li Shifeng, Sen was in control of the long rallies, where the Chinese tends to make errors if denied his Slam bang winners. As the match progressed, Sen even started getting the better of Shifeng’s flat fast exchanges – his Plan B. The straight smashes were landing, and he was teasing out net lifts from the Chinese to stub them out.
Sen led 17-16 after a long rally of tight net battles, and his trademark defense. Shifeng flicked back to send Sen chasing, who lunged and kept the shuttle in play. He then increases the pace and got a net error out of the opponent. But the last 4 points were hopeful pushes to the backline, that lacked precision and cost him the opener.
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In a topsy turvy match, Sen went 12-2 in the second absolutely smashing his heart out. At 11-2 he even snuck in a drop under the guise of a jump smash and took it 21-8 in a blowout.
But the decider saw Sen predictably fade out after a 65-shot rally at 10-12. He pinged Shifeng to the forecourt, and kept the rally going before a sudden big smash. In the second half of the decider, Sen let things drift, as he was rushed and then bashed by Shifeng. The 0-1 for India fetched up in 74 minutes.
For Satwik-Chirag, this will count as a heartbreak. Not because they lost, but because they could not close out from 16-12 up in the decider. The two sides had traded 21-13 margins each in the first two sets. Liang Weikeng was running about hammering down, Chirag putting in interceptions and Satwik had gotten a grip of Wang Chang’s serve.
Once out of the serve-return maze, Satwik and Chirag survived the flat game they are forced into playing these days and Satwik’s return got the Chinese to not get too fancy on their spinny serves. But Wang Chang started drawing out the lifts from the Indians and the scramble defense sunk as the Chinese drew level at 18-18.
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From then on, it was two nervy teams trading errors. Five match points were set up by the Chinese and foiled by the Indians. Serves at this point from both ends were sloppy, but the Indians couldn’t take the initiative to put Liang-Wang under pressure. It was a tight fight, and just as well that this was merely a group game, not a knockout.
The draws for quarters on Friday will be held later tonight.
