Badminton: Indian women, led by Saina Nehwal, make up for poor show by men

On a day in which the men lost 1-4 to Malaysia, Indian women, led by Saina Nehwal, gave the country something to cheer about. On the opening day of the Thomas and Uber Cup finals at the Siri Fort Sports Complex, Saina and Sindhu won their opening singles matches convincingly against Canada, setting the momentum for a 5-0 drubbing of Canada.

Playing in Group Y, world No 8 Saina won 21-4 21-12 against Joycelyn Ko in 25 minutes while Sindhu, ranked 11th, took one extra minute than her team-mate to win 21-16 21-3 against Rachael Honderich.

India clinched the tie when the doubles pair of Ashwini Ponnappa and Jwala Gutta beat Bruce Alex and Phyllis Chan 21-11 21-12.

PC Thulasi, in third singles, and Pradnya Gadre/ N Siki Reddy in the second doubles, also won their matches comfortably.

Earlier in the day, India's Thomas Cup campaign got off to a horrendous start as the hosts India lost the first four matches in the men's draw of the Thomas Cup badminton tie against Malaysia in Group C.

World No.18 Kidambi Srikanth went down to World No.1 Lee Chong Wei 19-21 12-21 in a tie lasting 35 minutes in the first singles which was followed by B Sumeet Reddy and

Manu Attri's 14-21 11-21 loss to Boon Heong Tan and Thien How Hoon in the men's doubles.

With Malaysia 2-0 up, a lot depended on captain Parupalli Kashyap in his match against Wei Feng Chong but the Hyderabadi couldn't make the most of his chances losing the second singles tie 13-21 6-21 in half an hour.

Making it 4-0 for Malaysia were V Shem Goh and Wee Kiong Tan who beat Akshay Dewalkar and Pranaav Jerry Chopra 21-17 14-21 21-14 in the second men's doubles tie.

Giving the hosts their only consolation win was RMV Gurusaidatt who beat Daren Liew 21-18 13-21 19-21 in the third and final men's singles match.