Badminton News: With three teams evenly matched, Group C is shaping up to be the hottest group stage match of the TotalEnergies BWF 2023 Sudirman Cup in Suzhou.
And while all eyes are on Malaysia, Taiwan and India, a fourth team, namely Australia, is looking to prove they are no accomplishment.
India’s men’s squad will still have fresh memories after guiding their country to an unprecedented Thomas Cup title a year ago.
Kidambi Srikanth, HS Prannoy, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy, Chirag Shetty, Dhruv Kapila and MR Arjun are part of the Thomas Cup winning team, and in Pusarla V Sindhu, Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand Pullela in Suzhou, the Indian team will be confident of good performance.
India have not won a medal in 17 editions of the Sudirman Cup where this edition presents a great opportunity for Pusarla and his colleagues to add a first team medal to their impressive list of individual achievements.
Of the five categories, India have lately been lagging behind in mixed doubles. Tanisha Crasto’s regular partner Ishaan Bhatnagar is not in the squad, and Crasto could start alongside Sudirman Cup debutant Sai Pratheek. Since Rankireddy and Ashwini Ponnappa have already combined for good results, the Indian team can also use the combination.
A recent Rankireddy/Shetty Asia Championship title and Jolly/Pullela semi-final appearance at the All England will keep the team in a confident frame of mind, although the men’s singles (Prannoy, Kidambi) have seen a quiet season, and the best of Pusarla finished second in the Spain Masters in Madrid.
Malaysia has a squad with good mixed doubles players/pairs (Goh Soon Huat/Lai Shevon Jemie, Tan Kian Meng/Lai Pei Jing, Chen Tang Jie/Toh Ee Wei and Hoo Pang Ron/Teoh Mei Xing; Valeree Siow) . The only concern for Malaysia is the women’s singles, as Goh Jin Wei doesn’t really like the circuit; The second choice is Letshanaa Karupathevan, 19, who has yet to play on the HSBC BWF World Tour.
Apart from that, Malaysia is well supplied in other sectors, thanks to players like Lee Zii Jia, Ng Tze Yong, Aaron Chia/Soh Wooi Yik, Ong Yew Sin/Teo Ee Yi and Pearly Tan/Thinaah Muralitharan.
Taiwan has reliable singles at the 2023 Sudirman Cup namely (Chou Tien Chen, Tai Tzu Ying) and men’s doubles (Lee Yang/Wang Chi-Lin, Lu Ching Yao/Yang Po Han), but these are the women’s doubles and the mixed doubles which will be the occasion for other teams.
Their top women’s doubles pair, Lee Chia Hsin/Teng Chun Hsun and Hsu Ya Ching/Lin Wan Ching, have performed decently in recent months, while in mixed doubles the likely combination is Yang Po-Hsuan/Hu Ling Fang, who also didn’t have much luck to choose.
That leaves Australia, who hope to make a good impression despite being the underdog of the group. Nathan Tang (men’s singles) and Tiffany Ho (women’s singles) have a tough task in singles, Gronya Somerville should do doubles with Kenneth Zhe Hooi Choo in mixed doubles and Kaitlyn Ea in women’s doubles.
Article tags: Malaysia, Taiwan, India, Sudirman Cup 2023
