India’s first-ever bronze medal on the Asia Badminton Mixed staff championships has proven that the nation can win the Sudirman Cup this yr, feels former nationwide coach Vimal Kumar.
India on Saturday narrowly went down 2-3 to formidable China within the semifinals to log out their marketing campaign with a maiden bronze medal in Dubai.
It was a creditable efficiency since India had been with out the providers of an injured Satwiksairaj Rankireddy however the males’s pair of Chirag Shetty-Dhruv Kapila and younger girls’s doubles duo of Treesa Jolly-Gayatri Gopichand dished out superlative reveals to take India to the semifinals.
“Once Satwik comes again, we may have a powerful doubles pair and our singles have at all times been robust. Prannoy and Sindhu are additionally able to beating anyone. So I really feel now we have a good likelihood to win the Sudirman Cup,” Vimal, who was current when the lads’s staff gained the Thomas Cup title final yr, informed PTI.
“The ladies doubles have also shown good level, especially Treesa and Gayatri beating the Malaysian top doubles pair (world no 4 Tan Pearly and Thinaah Muralitharan) will give them a lot of confidence. We can’t say it’s too ambitious (to win Sudirman Cup). We can. It is exactly what we did in Thomas cup. We can be hopeful after this performance.”
Sudirman Cup is the blended staff competitors on the world stage.
India had sealed their first-ever continental bronze medal after beating Hong Kong within the quarterfinals on Friday. The feat additionally helped India earn direct qualification to the Sudirman Cup scheduled to be held in Suzhou, China from May 14-21.
“It was a superb bronze medal. Though I’m a bit disillusioned as we had a superb likelihood of beating China yesterday. It would have been good to beat China. It is the primary time in historical past we got here so near beating them. We have at all times struggled in blended staff occasions,” Vimal said.
He said India could have won the tournament as well, considering the team had beaten Malaysia and Hong Kong.
“Creditable performance from men’s doubles and women’s doubles. I will give them a lot of credit. They did a good job, unlike the singles. Normally our strength is singles but even though Satwik couldn’t play, the doubles pairs played well against Hong Kong and China. The women’s pair especially showed marked improvement.
“It is disappointing that singles lost, if one of them could have won, it would have taken us to finals. Many players from China are injured, so they gave a chance to these guys who were injured for some time.”
World quantity 9 H S Prannoy misplaced to Lei Lan Xi 13-21, 15-21, whereas double Olympic medallist P V Sindhu suffered a 9-21 21-16 18-21 defeat to Gao Fang Jie.
Dhruv Kapila and Chirag Shetty then beat He Ji Ting and Zhou Hao Dong 21-19, 21-19, whereas Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand defeated Liu Sheng Shu and Tan Ning 21-18 13-21 21-19 to carry India again into the competition.
The blended doubles mixture of Ishaan Bhatnagar and Tanisha Crasto suffered 17-21 13-21 defeat to Jiang Zhen Bang and Wei Ya Xin as India misplaced the tie 2-3.
Vimal was left disillusioned with the singles efficiency, particularly Sindhu.
“Prannoy was taking part in nicely, so it was a bit of disappointing. If he had taken the second recreation, he may have discovered a means. He didn’t have any concept the right way to play as he was taking part in for the primary time, so he struggled.
“Sindhu was comfortably positioned after the second recreation. After the damage, I feel she is struggling to fluctuate the tempo throughout rallies, when to push the tempo and it let her down.”
Former world championships bronze medallist Lakshya Sen didn’t have a good outing as he had lost in three games to Hong Kong’s NG Ka Long Angus.
Vimal said: “He is losing close matches but I’ll give him some time. He went through two surgeries nose and shoulder after the commonwealth Games. He has not fully recovered from that.
“He is training well and I feel he is still playing at a good level. It all depends on the day as the competition in the top 20 is quite tough.”
Talking about Treesa and Gayatri, Vimal mentioned: “Definitely they’re all very younger, the extra they play such robust matches, they are going to get higher. Priority now could be to compete in as many good matches as potential. They must play extra overseas towards Korean, Chinese and Japanese.”
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