India on Sunday suffered a 0-5 thrashing at the hands of formidable China in the opening group match of the Sudirman Cup mixed team badminton championship here.
Only P V Sindhu could offer a semblance of a fight in her 21-19, 16-21, 14-21 women’s singles loss to Wang Yihan while the four other Indians were outclassed by the Chinese at the Putra Stadium.
The Group ‘A’ match began with the mixed doubles contest which Tarun Kona and Ashwini Ponnappa lost in straight games to the pair of Zhang Nan and Zhao Yunlei 10-21, 13-21 in just 29 minutes.
In the second tie, P Kashyap was no match for world No. 2 Chen Long, who won 21-11, 21-9 in men’s singles.
The combine of Akshay Dewalkar and Pranaav Chopra gave a tough fight to Liu Xiaolong and Qiu Zihan in men’s doubles before losing 23-25, 18-21 while their women counterparts Ashwini Ponnappa and Gadre Pradnya lost 18-21, 11-21 in women’s doubles.
Without Saina, it was going to be tough for India but Sidhu displayed a brilliant performance against Wang Yihan.
Sidhu won the opening game and looked like there could be an upset but the world No. 13 Indian lost the plot later on to go down fighting in one hour and six minutes.
World No. 11 Kashyap was completely outplayed by world No. 2 Chen Long in the 33-minute match in which the Chinese was ahead in all departments of the game. India plays Indonesia in the second and last group tie.
Saina did not take part in the tournament as she is nursing a hairline fracture in her toe.
