Already out of the knockout race, India signed off their campaign in the Sudirman Cup badminton tournament with a 4-1 win over Australia in their final Group C tie in Suzhou, China on Wednesday (May 17).
Placed in the 'group of death', India had lost 1-4 to Chinese Taipei and 0-5 against Malaysia — two heavyweights of the game — to crash out of the mixed team championship.
Against Australia, India did not have the best of starts as the mixed doubles pair of Sai Pratheek and Tanisha Crasto lost 21-17 14-21 18-21 against Kenneth Zhe Hooi Choo and Gronya Somerville.
H.S. Prannoy drew the scores for India with a commanding 21-8 21-8 win over Jack Yu in just 28 minutes.
With nothing at stake, India fielded Anupama Upadhyaya in the women's singles in place of P.V. Sindhu and the youngster didn't disappoint, scoring a 21-16 21-18 win over Tiffany Ho.
M.R. Arjun and Dhruv Kapila then defeated Ricky Tang and Ryane Wang 21-11 21-12 in the men's doubles to hand India an unassailable 3-1 lead in the contest.
The women's doubles pair of Crasto and Ashwini Ponnappa finished off the contest in style, beating Kaitlyn Ea and Angela Yu 21-19 21-13 to give India a consolation win.
