Defending champion India to take on Thailand in the Thomas Cup Opener
India have sent an 18-member contingent - 10 men and eight women - for the Thomas and Uber Cup Finals which will be held between April 27 and May 5.
World no 17 pair of Gayatri Gopichand and Treesa Jolly progressed to the second-round while Ashwini Ponnappa Tanisha Crasto crashed out of the Australian Open women’s doubles competition at the State Sports Centre in Sydney, on Tuesday.
Gayatri Gopichand and Treesa Jolly, defeated the world No. 29 Canadian pair of Catherine Choi and Josephine Wu 21-16, 21-17 in
the round of 32 of the BWF Super 500 tournament.
In the round of 16, the Indian badminton duo will face tougher opponents in Japan’s Mayu Matsumoto and Wakana Nagahara, who are ranked fourth in the world.
Gayatri and Treesa won the bronze medal at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham last year and made it to the semi-finals
of the All-England Open in March. However, they are yet to make the quarter-finals on the BWF Tour since the qualification window for the Paris 2024 Olympics started on May 1.
World championships silver medalist Ashwini Ponnappa and her partner Tanisha Crasto crashed out after losing their doubles
opener against world No. 18 pair of Febriana Kusuma and Aallania Pratiwi of Indonesia 11-21, 21-14, 17-21.
Earlier in the day, N Sikki Reddy, who teamed up with Arathi Sara Sunil, also lost their opening round match against Ukraine’s
Yelyzaveta Zharka and Mariia Stoliarenko 19-21, 21-15, 19-21.
Two-time Olympic medallist PV Sindhu and Commonwealth Games champion Lakshya Sen will be in action from Wednesday. .
Results at the Australian Open will also count towards players’ qualifying rankings for the Paris Games.
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