The lack of quality doubles players came back to haunt the Indian badminton team as it suffered a 3-2 loss to Malaysia in its opening tie of the prestigious Sudirman Cup here on Monday.
Saina Nehwal and the women’s doubles pair of G. Jwala and Ashwini Ponnappa won their respective matches but K. Srikanth failed to breach the defence of Lee Chong Wei. The men’s and mixed doubles pairs also bit the dust as India began its campaign on a losing note here.
India, which reached the knockout stage of the biennial tournament in the 2011 edition, will next take on three-time champion Korea on Wednesday.
Manu Attri and Sumeeth Reddy started the proceedings for India but their fight ended with a 21-15, 21-16 loss to Goh V. Shem and Tan Wee Kiong.
Olympic bronze medallist Saina then brought India back into the contest with a 24-22, 21-13 win over world number 56 Tee Jing Yi in a 44-minute women’s singles match.
The men’s singles contest between world No. 4 Srikanth and two-time Olympic silver medallist Lee, who is playing his first tournament after serving a backdated eight-month ban for doping, was expected to be a mouth-watering affair but it ended with the former world No. 1 notching up a 21-16, 21-15 win.
Commonwealth Games silver medallists Jwala and Ashwini then took the court and avenged their Glasgow final loss to Vivian Kah Mun Hoo and Woon Khe Wei with a hard-fought 21-18, 19-21, 21-15 win over the world No. 11 pair.
However, in the decider, N. Sikki Reddy and Arun Vishnu could not get it across the world No. 70 pair of Chan Peng Soon and Goh Liu Ying and went down 21-14, 21-18 in a 40-minute match.
Saina led 12-9 at one stage, but Tee soon managed to turn the tables to hold game point thrice at 20-19, 21-10 and 22-21.
However, Saina survived each one and went ahead 23-22 before grabbing the game when Tee hit the net.
In the second game, Saina pulled up her socks as she looked sharper and it reflected in the scoreline as she led 11-5 at the break.
Tee tried her best but could not break the Indian, who wrapped up the match when Tee hit wide.
