India on Saturday ended a 28-year-old medal drought in the Asian Games badminton after the women’s shuttlers, led by Saina Nehwal and P.V. Sindhu, edged out Thailand 3-2 to enter the semifinals of the women’s team event.
After Saina and Sindhu registered hard-fought victories in the first two singles, the scratch combination of Sindhu and Ashwini Ponnappa finally assured India the bronze medal after they clinched the final women’s doubles match.
World No. 7 Saina gave the team a fine start, though after a 67-minute struggle against Thailand No. 1 and 2013 world champion Ratchanok Intanon which was capitalised by Sindhu, who put India 2-0 up in the best-of-five rubber by defeating Porntip Buranaprasertsuk 21-15, 21-13.
But the weakness in India’s doubles and third singles came to the fore as Thailand fought back into reckoning by drawing level and forcing the decider.
Thailand won the third singles when Ongbamrungphan Busanan easily defeated India’s P.C. Thulasi and then clinched the first doubles too to draw level at 2-2.
It was then left to Sindhu and Ashwini, who won over Sapsiree Taerattanchai and Sasalee Thoungthongkam respectively to pilot India home.
India will meet South Korea on Sunday in the semifinals after the host defeated Chinese Taipei in another quarterfinal. China and Japan will meet in the other semifinal. India’s last medal in badminton had come in 1986 when the men’s team claimed the bronze.
On the other hand, the Indian men’s team was outplayed by Korea 3-0. K. Srikanth and Commonwealth Games gold medallist P. Kashyap lost in contrasting fashions while the doubles team of Sumeeth Reddy and Manu Attri also failed to come good.
The Indians women’s team faced a tough fight from the start as Saina came from behind in all the three games against Ratchanok to carve out a 21-15, 17-21, 21-18 victory. In the second match, Sindhu proved too good for Buranaprasertsuk. She led right through by five or six points to win the opening game with a sharp ‘kill’ at the net. The second game too went along the same lines before Sindhu served on match point, which her opponent returned over the baseline.