Whatever perspective you use, India’s Sudirman Cup 2023 campaign was a complete failure. We fell to Malaysia 0-5 and Chinese Taipei 1-4, respectively.
Additionally, SaiSatwick RangiReddy and Chirag Shetty must take responsibility for this match’s lackluster performance against Malaysia’s Aaron Chia/Soh Yooi Yik.
In addition, this was India’s eighth straight defeat to the Malaysian world-number one tandem as they lost 18-21/19-21.
Our couple has given far more accomplished and improved performances. However, they lacked any strong play patches and tired. The Indian pair had previously lost to Lee Yang and Huang Wei versus Chinese Taipei 13-21/21-17/18-21.
Leroy D’sa, a renowned doubles expert, international medalist, seven-time national champion, and someone who pays close attention to our doubles results, remarked, “I am unhappy and upset at the manner our boys played. They made no rational decisions. Not clear. Where were the rebuttals to the erratic attack that brought so many to their knees? They were to serve as the team’s captain. There is also little uniformity from the team think tank.
Sai Praneeth and Tanisha Crasto, a mixed doubles team, played really well to defeat Yang Po and Ling Fang 19-21/15-21/6-15 in a three-set match. But the mixed doubles team was switched for the match versus Malaysia. Dhruv Kapila and Ashwini Ponnappa were defeated 16-21/17-21 by their adversaries. Why was it necessary to switch the pair?
But Sindhu fell short when it counted the most. Tai prevailed, although it took a lot of effort to record a score of 21-14/18-21/21-18. The Indian player’s performance today is his best in almost a year. But nobody knows how long this form will persist.
She stumbled once more in the very following match against Malaysian Goh Jin Wei, who she had beaten on all four occasions they had played. With a Matchpoint service at 20-19, Sindhu served the first game but lost the following two 10-21 and 22.
She informed the media after this key encounter, “I should have won this match. It is quite depressing. I struggled after giving her a far too strong start because of that.
Sindhu was behind 5-15 and 9-17. But she had a bad day.
India defeated Australia in a meaningless tie. In the mixed doubles, we stumbled but still won 4-1. The Sudirman Cup has never produced a medal for India.
Vimal Kumar, the former head coach of India, was equally disappointed in the outcome. “I don’t think we had a good team spirit here like the one we had at the Thomas and Uber Cup last year,” he claimed.
I am generally unhappy with our performance at the Sudirman Cup,” he continued.
Returning to Sindhu, it is interesting that while playing a match of the highest caliber against Tai, she does not use downward strokes. Players like Tai have plenty of opportunity to play their trick shots when the bird is lifted high. She must also bring two or three different game strategies. She has always performed so wonderfully. There is no reason she can’t attempt it once more.
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