Having booked a spot at the knockout stage of the Sudirman Cup, India will have to play out of their skins to break the Chinese wall in the quarterfinals here tomorrow.
Having booked a spot at the knockout stage of the Sudirman Cup, India will have to play out of their skins to break the Chinese wall in the quarterfinals here tomorrow.
This is only the second time that India managed to reach the knockout stage, following their quarterfinal finish at the 2011 edition when they lost to China 1-3.
It will be the mighty Chinese once again who will stand in between India and a medal at the prestigious tournament, which will not figure Indonesia in the last eight for the first time in its 28-year history.
China have two-time Olympic champion Lin Dan and reining Rio gold medallist Chen Long in their ranks and it will take a gigantic effort from India to get across them in the men's singles.
Among Indians, only K Srikanth has ever beaten Lin Dan en route his title triumph at the 2014 China Open and he will need to be at his best to outdo the Chinese.
In the women's singles, Olympic silver medallist P V Sindhu will also have a tough task irrespective of whether she plays world No. 7 He Bingjiao or world No. 6 Sun Yu.
World No. 5 Sindhu had lost to Bingjiao at the Asia Championship last month, while the Hyderabadi has a 3-4 record against Sun, who had beaten the Indian at the Dubai World Superseries Finals last year.
Women's world No 4 doubles pair of Chen Qingchen and Jia Yifan and the makeshift combo of Bao Yixin and Tang Jinhua have done the job for China and it will be an interesting contest for Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy, who have shown the stomach to fight.
In the mixed doubles, Ashwini and young Satwiksairaj Rankireddy too have dished out a gritty performance in the event so far and they would look to challenge the supremacy of world No. 2 Lu Kai and Huang Yaqiong if they are fielded by China.
The Chinese men's doubles pair of Liu Yuchen and Li Junhui are world No 3, while Zhang Nan and Fu Haifeng, world No. 40, also won against Hong Kong and it will be an uphill climb for B Sumeeth Reddy and Manu Attri.
India could perhaps look back at their men's team performance against China during the Asia Team championships last year when they had beaten them at Hyderabad. But then, it was a young Chinese team sans Lin Dan and Chen Long.
In the other quarter-final tomorrow, Japan will face Malaysia in an interesting contest.
(This article has not been edited by DNA's editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)
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