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.
India’s star shuttlers Pusarla Venkata Sindhu, Saina Nehwal and Kidambi Srikanth were felicitated by Sports Minister Vijay Goel on Thursday for their fine show at the recently concluded Badminton World Championship held at Glasgow.
Sindhu settled for silver after narrowly missing out to finish on top against Nozomi Okuhara of Japan in a nerve-wreaking one hour 50 minutes final at the Emirates Arena at Glasgow, UK, on Sunday. Saina bagged a hard earned bronze, going down to the 2016 Olympic bronze in an intense 74-minute battle on Saturday.
The Indonesian and Australian Open Champion Srikanth ran out of his winning streak in the quarter-finals, losing against top seed Son Wan Ho of South Korea in 48 minutes on Friday.
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Commenting on her final match, Sindhu said: “The final was tough and long, the last minute was anyone’s game. She (Okuhara) played really well.”
Saina spoke on the development of badminton in the country and said: “Our sport is developing in the country, it is getting popular. It is not difficult to produce champions due to the facilities.”
Srikanth thanked his coach Pullela Gopichand and said: “I want to thank Gopi sir, got to learn a lot from the quarter-final loss.”
Coaches Vimal Kumar and Gopichand were also felicitated by the Sports Minister for playing a major role in development of the shuttlers.
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