Thomas and Uber Cup: Indian shuttlers taste success on Day 2

Indian shuttlers enjoyed a successful outing at the Thomas and Uber Cup as both the men's and women's teams hammered their Australian counterparts here on Monday.

While the men's team whitewashed Australia 5-0, the eves outclassed their opponents 4-1 earlier in the day.

In the men's singles clash, World No. 9 H.S. Prannoy handed a straight game defeat to Anthony Joe. Prannoy took 32 minutes to beat his opponent 21-19, 21-13 to hand India 1-0 lead.

Arjun M.R. and Ramchandran Shlok followed Prannoy to beat Australia's duo of Sawan Serasinghe and Matthew Chau 21-11, 21-15 in the 27-minute affair of men's doubles game.

In an another men's single match, B Sai Praneeth took just 20 minutes to outplay Jacob Schueler 21-9, 21-6, providing India a 3-0 lead.

Arun George and Sanyam Shukla handed India an unassailable 4-0 lead as the pair got the better of Simon Wing and Raymond Tam 21-16, 20-22, 21-8 in the 43-minute long affair of men's double game.

In the fifth and final game, Lakshya Sen wrapped up the proceedings on a winning note as he registered a 21-5, 21-14 win over Kai Chen Teoh in the men's single issue to help India whitewash Australia 5-0.

Earlier in the day, the India women's badminton team also came all guns blazing to thrash Australia 4-1 in the second group match of the tournament.

Barring the women's doubles match, the Indian team led by ace shuttler Saina Nehwal won all their matches.

Saina kicked off the proceedings with a straight game win over Hsuan-Yu Wendy Chen. She outclassed her opponent 21-14, 21-19 in the 35-minute opening match, and provide India a 1-0 lead.

However, Australia equalised the issue in the women's doubles affair as Gronya Somerville and Renuga Veeran defeated Meghana Jakkampudi and Poorvisha S Ram 21-13, 21-16 within half an hour.

In an another women's singles match, Vaishnavi Reddy Jakka bought back India in the contest as she hammered Jennifer Tam 21-17, 21-13.

Later, another women's pair comprising Sanyogita Ghorpade and Prajakta Sawant extended India's lead by beating Louisa Ma and Ann-Louise Slee 21-19, 21-11 in the second doubles match.

19-year-old Anura Prabhudesai finally sealed the issue for India 4-1 as she got the better of Zecily Fung 21-6, 21-7 in just 18 minutes.

India will now face top seeds from Japan on Wednesday.

In other clashes of the day, Japan's women and Malaysia's and China's men's teams all secured 5-0 victories in the tournament.

--IANS

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