AGENCIES
KUNSHAN, China
Indian eves made a stupendous start to their campaign at the Uber Cup badminton tournament by thrashing Australia 5-0 here on Monday.
The Indian eves, who had created history by clinching the bronze medal in the last edition at New Delhi, won all the three singles and both the doubles to grab maximum points at the Kunshan Sports Center Stadium here. World No 8 Saina Nehwal started the proceedings for India and after a brief struggle against World No 74 Hsuan-Yu Wendy Chen, notched up a 22-20, 21-14 win to give India a 1-0 lead. Two-time bronze medallist at World Championship, P V Sindhu then brushed aside Joy Lai in 25 minutes to make it 2-0 in their favour.
Celebrated women's doubles pair of Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa dished out a clinical performance to get across Hsuan-Yu Wendy and Gronya Somerville 21-9, 21-15 in a 28-minute match. South Asian Games gold-medallist, Ruthvika Shivani Gadde then hammered Tiffany Ho 21-5, 21-11 in the third singles, while Sikki Reddy N and Sindhu dismantled Leanne Choo and Joy Lai 21-12, 21-12 to complete the 5-0 drubbing.
In the opening singles match, Saina had opened a 5-0 lead early on but Chen narrowed it down to 7-8. The Indian once surged ahead to 14-7 but Chen slowly and steadily made her way back to catch up with her at 19-19. Saina, however, had the last laugh as she grabbed two points from 20-20 to pocket the first game. In the second, Chen had zoomed to a 13-7 lead but Saina reeled off nine straight points to turn the tables and didn't look back to seal the issue.
India will take on Germany on Tuesday in their next Group D match.
