Defending Champion India faces Thailand in their Thomas Cup Opener.
While the Thomas Cup is the world badminton team championship for men, the Uber Cup is the women’s version. Both championships are held simultaneously biannually.
It was a good day for Indian shuttlers as defending champion Saina Nehwal, Rio Olympics silver medallist PV Sindhu, Kidambi Srikanth and Sai Praneeth advanced at the $750,000 Australian Open Superseries here on Thursday.
In women's singles category, Nehwal edged past Soniia Cheah of Malaysia 21-15, 20-22, 21-14 in a gruelling match which lasted around an hour. Fifth-seeded Sindhu played to her reputation and outplayed her Chinese opponent Chen Xiaoxin 21-13, 21-18 in 46 minutes' match.
In men's singles, Srikanth, who recently clinched Indonesia Open, and Praneeth continued their prime form, brushing aside South Korean top seed Son Wan Ho and Chinese Huang Yuxiang respectively to advance to the quarter-finals, where they take on each other.
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Srikanth defeated Son Wan Ho 15-21, 21-13, 21-13 while Praneeth, who played a defensive game, defeated Yuxiang 21-15, 18-21, 21-13 in an hour long match.
In women's doubles, after winning the first game, the Indian pair of Ashwini Ponnappa and N. Sikki Reddy were outplayed in every department of the game by Japanese duo Shiho Tanaka and Koharu Yonemoto 21-18, 18-21, 13-21, and bowed out of the meet.
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