Pride at stake as India take on Germany in last Thomas Cup tie

Already out of quarterfinals reckoning, India will look to restore pride when they take on an equally demoralised Germany in an inconsequential final Group C tie of the Thomas Cup here tomorrow.
India are hosting the Thomas and Uber Cup Finals for the first time and a lot was expected from the hosts and while the women's team, led by Saina Nehwal, reached the quarterfinals, Parupalli Kashyap and Co. Failed to cross the group stage yesterday.
The men's team suffered a 1-4 loss to former champions Malaysia in their campaign opener on Sunday and then went down fighting 2-3 to South Korea at the Siri Fort Sports Complex.

It was the heart-breaking loss of K Srikanth to world no. 9 Wan Ho Son in the first singles, which put paid to India's hopes as the hosts were looking to win all the three singles.
After a loss against Malaysia's Wei Feng Chong, Kashyap came good against Lee Dong Keun and R M V Gurusaidutt was consistent with his gritty performances against Daren Liew and Hwang Jong Soo.
"Germany played well against Korea. They have two good singles player in Marc Zwiebler and Dieter Domke. Marc has been consistent over the years to be inside the top 20. He has played here during IBL and Domke is also a good player. Doubles is obviously good," Kashyap told PTI.

"But we are very positive. I will be facing Domke and I have 100 per cent record against him. We will look to get on to a positive note against Germany," he added.
Despite losing their matches so far, the doubles pair of Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy, ranked 46th, and the 49th ranked combo of Pranaav Jerry Chopra and Akshay Dewalkar, have shown sparks of brilliance against higher-ranked combinations from Malaysia and Korea and they would fancy their chances tomorrow.
Germany, too, have been dependent on their singles, led by Marc Zwiebler, Dieter Domke and Lukas Schmidt. While Marc and Dieter came up with gutsy performances against Korea, Lukas saved them the blushes against Malaysia yesterday.