The Indian women’s badminton team put up a spirited performance against Japan in the last group D tie before losing 2-3. It was a brilliant performance by the Indian singles players but the doubles pair cost them the match.
In the first singles, Saina Nehwal took on Okuhara. Okuhara started the game with 2-0 lead. The Japanese player dominated the game and took a 7-4 lead. From 4-7 down Saina made a came back and equalled the score at 8-8. At the interval, Okuhara led 11-10. After the interval, Saina equalled the score and then took a 13-12 lead. Saina then dominated the game and never allowed Okuhara to come back into the game and won the first set 21-18. In the second game, Saina began on a positive note taking a 4-2 lead. She continued to dominate Okuhara and led 11-4 at an interval. After the interval, Saina played with aggression with Okuhara making unforced errors winning the second set 21-6 to give India 1-0 lead.
The second match was played between Yamaguchi and PV Sindhu. In the first game, Yamaguchi started on an aggressive note taking a 2-0 lead. Sindhu made a good comeback to level the score at 3-3. Sindhu then took 6 successive points to lead 9-3. At the interval, Sindhu had a commanding 11-5 lead. After the interval, Yamaguchi made a good come back by reducing the gap to 3 at the score of 10-13 in favour of Sindhu. Yamaguchi made lots of unforced errors and Sindhu won the first set 21-11 easily. In the second game, Sindhu started well taking a 2-0 lead before Yamaguchi equalled the score at 2-2. PV Sindhu then took control to take a 5-2 lead before Yamaguchi reduced the gap to 6-8 and then equalled the score at 10-10. At the interval, PV Sindhu had a slender lead of 11-10. After the interval, PV Sindhu created pressure on Japanese player and took a 15-12 lead. Soon after Yamaguchi reduced the gap to 14-15. Both players fought for each as it was 18-18 before Sindhu held her nerve to seal the game 21-18 to give India 2-0 lead.
In the women’s doubles, the top seeded pair of Takashi and Matasumo trashed the Indian pair of Jwala Gutta and Sikki Reddy in straight games 11-21,8-21 to give Japan much-needed win by reducing the gap 1-2.
The fourth match was played between Gadde and Sato. It was a dominating display by Sato who outplayed her opponent winning the match in straight sets 21-7, 21-14 to equal the score at 2-2.
The final match was played between Ashwini Ponappa/Sindhu versus Naito and Matasumo. In the first game, the Indian pair dominated the game and won the first set 21-15. In the second game, both pairs fought for each and the Japanese held their nerves to seal the second set 21-19. In the deciding game, it was neck to neck fight. The Indian pair led 11-9 at the interval but made unforced errors to lose the game 16-21 and tie 2-3.
India are through to the quarter-finals of Uber Cup which will be played tomorrow.