Saina, Sindhu, Ashwini help India edge past Thailand 3-2 in quarters
Saina Nehwal returns to Ratchanok Intanon of Thailand in their women's team quarterfinals match. (Photo: AP)
Incheon: India ended a 28-year-old medal drought in Asian Games badminton after the women’s shuttlers, led by Saina Nehwal and P.V. Sindhu, edged out Thailand 3-2 to reach the semifinals of the women’s team event, here on Saturday.After Saina and Sindhu won the first two singles, the combination of Sindhu and Ashwini Ponnappa finally earned India the medal after they clinched the final women’s doubles match.
Saina defeated Ratchanok Intanon while Sindhu beat Porntip Buranaprasertsuk to put India 2-0 up in the best-of-five rubber. But Ongbamrungphan Busanan defeated P.C. Thulasi in the third singles and the Thais then clinched the first doubles to draw level at 2-2. Sindhu and Ashwini then won the deciding rubber against Sapsiree Taerattanchai and Sasalee Thoungthongkam to pilot India into the semis.
India will now meet South Korea who defeated Chinese Taipei in another quarterfinal. However, the men’s team were outplayed 0-3 by South Korea. Kidambi Srikanth and Parupalli Kashyap went down in contrasting fashion while the doubles team of Sumeeth Reddy and Manu Attri also failed to come good. In squash, India were assured of their first ever women’s singles medal after Dipika Pallikal and Joshana Chinappa won their respective openers and set up an exciting contest in the quarterfinals.
Chinappa blanked blanked South Korea’s Song Sunmi 11-9, 11-7, 11-7. Soon after, Pallikal struggled a bit before defeating Jinyue Gu of China 11-6, 10-12, 11-6, 11-4. It was heartbreak for India in judo as Thoudam Kalpana Devi missed out on a bronze after losing her repechage bout against Kazakhstan’s Lenariya Mingazova in the 52 kg category.
Two other Indians, Navdeep Chana (men’s 60 kg) and Likmabam Sushila Devi (women’s 48 kg) were eliminated in the earlier rounds. Meanwhile, the Indian men’s volleyball team were given a tough time by unfancied Hong Kong before winning the Group ‘C’ encounter 23-25, 25-18, 25-16, 25-21. But the the Indian girls were no match for their South Korean counterparts as the hosts recorded a crushing 25-5, 25-12, 25-13 win.
On the basketball court, the Indian men’s team thrashed Palestine 89-49 in their opening Group ‘B’ encounter. In tennis, the Indian women’s team blanked Oman 3-0. Prarthana Gulabrao Thombare and Ankita Raina notched up contrasting singles victories before the pair of Natasha Marie Anne Palha and Rishika Sunkara were handed a walkover in the doubles.
In rowing, the women’s pair of Sanjukta Dung Dung and Tarunikha Pratap and the lightweight men’s double sculls team of Roopendra Singh-Manjeet Singh entered the finals of their respective events.
( Source : PTI )
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