Badminton: India loses to Korea 0-4 in Uber Cup

PV Sindhu was annihilated by An Seyoung again as the Indian women's badminton team experienced an earth-shattering 0-5 defeat against their opponent. Earlier, they had grabbed two successive wins against Canada and USA, so the sudden dip in performance was alarming for the young Indian team who could not even win a single game in the latest five-match tie. 

India still advances to the quarter-finals

Luckily, the defeat would not have a considerable impact on India's progress as they have already sealed a quarterfinal berth after nailing a top-two finish in the group after two wins. For PV Sindhu, it was an unfortunate outing as she lost her fifth consecutive match to An Seyoung 15-21, 14-21 to concede an early and unexpected 0-1 lead. The doubles charge was led by the partnership between Shruti Mishra and Simran Singhi who couldn't hold their footing against the world number two pair of Lee Sohee and Shin Seungchan as the former lost 13-21, 12-21 in a match that lasted 39 minutes.

Aakarshi Kashyap was India's hope for the second singles match but the young player lost in straight games 10-21 10-21 to world number 19 Kim Ga Eun as India officially gave the tie 0-3. The fourth match was another straight-game win for Koreans Kim Hye Jeong and Kong Heeyong who beat Tanisha Crasto and Treesa Jolly 21-14 21-11. Ashmita Chaliha then took the court and suffered a hammering defeat to Sim Yujin 18-21, 17-21 as Korea pocketed the tie 5-0 against India. 

Although she gave her opponent a scare in the 39-minute-long final women’s singles match of the tie and fought hard to earn at least one victory for her team, she was no match for the Korean. Meanwhile, the Indian men's team in Thomas Cup lost their Group C tie 2-3 against badminton legend Chinese Taipei. Although Lakshya returned after being benched in the previous tie, his recovery couldn't pacify his team. However, HS Pranmoy exhibited his best form and sacked a win.