Aarhus: The Indian men’s badminton team was eliminated from the Thomas Cup on Friday after losing 1-3 to Denmark in the quarterfinals. Except for Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy, no one could help the team in securing a win at the quarterfinals of the Thomas Cup for the first time since 2010.
Viktor Axelsen, the world number two and Tokyo Olympics gold medalist, outplayed Kidambi Srikanth in the first match, winning 21-12, 21-13 in 38 minutes. Srikanth trailed throughout the opening game, and the only time he came close to catching Axelsen was when the score was 4-3 in favour of the Dane. From there, the Danish star scored seven consecutive points to go up 11-3 and win the opening game in a flash.
Axelsen prevented Srikanth from taking the lead in the second game as well. At 1-1 and then 2-2, the two were even, but from there, the Dane sped to 5-2 and then 12-2 by winning seven consecutive points, leaving Srikanth far behind before finishing up the second game and the match.
22nd Thomas Cup Semifinal for DENMARK
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— Badminton Talk (@BadmintonTalk) October 15, 2021
In the second doubles, MR Arjun and Dhruv Kapila were defeated 16-21, 9-21 by Mathias Christiansen and Frederik Sogaard to give Denmark the tie. After losing 0-3 against Japan, the Indian women’s team was also eliminated from the Uber Cup.
India had beaten the Netherlands and Tahiti by identical 5-0 scores in the group stage before falling to China 1-4. For the first time since 2010, India finished second in the group behind China, qualifying for the Thomas Cup quarterfinals.
