2022 champions India won 5-0 and will now play formidable China in their last Group A match

India’s doubles pairing of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty in action. Pic credit: Badminton Photo

Our Correspondent

New Delhi: The Indian men’s team marched into the quarterfinals with a 5-0 demolition of Australia in the Group A clash in the Thomas & Uber Cup in Horsens, Denmark.

India, who won the Thomas Cup in 2022, will next play formidable China in their last group stage match on Wednesday. They defeated Canada 4-1 in the opening encounter.

India came hard on Australia as they wanted to take full points from the tie and seal quarter-final berth. Lakshya Sen started with a 21-14, 21-16 win over Ephraim Stephen Sam while Asian Championships silver medallists Ayush Shetty made it 2-0 defeating Shrey Dhand 21-8, 21-6 in just 26 minutes.

Former Asian Champions Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty then made short work of beating Rizky Hidayat and Jack Yu 21-14, 21-16 to win the tie.

HS Prannoy, who replaced Kidambi Srikanth in the tie, defeated Rishi Honda Boopathy 21-11, 21-17. The men’s doubles combination of Hariharan Amsakarunan and MR Arjun made it 5-0 seeing off Andika Ramadiansyah and E Stephen Sam 21-12, 21-10.

—eom