The Men’s Badminton team of India created history by defeating the 14-time champion Indonesia to win the maiden Thomas Cup for the country. They beat the defending champion in a tremendous 3-0 win to clinch the gold medal. India became the sixth country in the world and fifth among the Asian countries to become the champion of the prestigious world badminton championship for men.
The BWF Thomas and Uber Cup 2022 was held in Bangkok, Thailand from 4th May to 15th May. In the 35th edition of Thomas Cup India was represented by KidambiSrikanth, LakshyaSen, HS PrannoyandPriyanshuRajawatfor singles and SatwiksairajRankireddy, ChiragShetty, M.R Arjun, DhruvKapila, Krishna Prasad Garaga, VishnuvardhanGoudPanjala for men’s doubles tournaments. In the Uber Cup for singles tournaments, India was represented by PV Sindhu, AakarshiKashyap, AshmitaChaliha and UnnatiHooda and for doubles tournaments, GayathriGopichand, Treesa Jolly, SimranSinghi, RitikaThaker, TanishaCrasto, Shruti Mishra represented the country.
While in Uber Cup the women’s shuttlers were knocked out in the quarter-final, and the men’s team continued their journey to the final. In the quarter-final, they defeated the five-time champion Malaysia and sealed a 3-2 victory against the last year’s bronze medallist Denmark in the semi-final. In the 73 years-long histories of the Thomas and Uber Cup, India has never reached to the final. This year the Indian Men’s Badminton team not only broke the drought but also defeated the 14 time champion Indonesia in a heroic effort.
In the five-match final ( 3 singles and 2 doubles ) India did not need to play the second doubles and third single matches as LakshyaSen beat the 5th world ranking Anthony SinisukaGinting (8-21, 21-17, 21-16) in the first single, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy/Chirag Shetty, Satwiksairaj, Rankireddy & Chirag Shetty beat Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo& Mohammad Ahsan (18-21, 23-21, 21-19) in the first doubles and KidambiSrikanth beat Jonatan Christie in the second singles in a nail-biting 21-15, 23-21 win to seal the historic 3-0 victory for India. Hense India has become only the sixth country in the world after Indonesia (14 times), China (10 times), Malaysia (5 times), Denmark (1 time) and Japan (1 time) to win the glorious Thomas Cup.
