Badminton Asia Championships 2023: How did the Indian shuttlers perform?

India’s performance in the Badminton Asia Championships was below par, to say the least. Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty won the gold medal in the men’s doubles after defeating the Malaysian pair of Ong Yew Sin and Teo Ee Yi 16-21, 21-17, 21-19. Rankireddy and Shetty also became the first Indian pair to win the championship after 58 years.

They also achieved their career-best doubles ranking of No.5 after jumping one place up in the BWF rankings. But apart from their victory, the Indian contingent could not quite meet expectations. India finished fifth in the medal tally after China, Japan, Chinese Taipei, and Indonesia.

In the men’s singles, HS Prannoy advanced to the quarterfinals, but left the game mid-way due to injury against Kanta Tsuneyama of Japan. Kidambi Srikanth also faltered after crashing out in the second round. The 12th seed lost to Kodai Naraoka 21-14, 20-22, 21-9.

Lakshya Sen also failed to impress, as he faltered 7-21, 21-23 against Loah Kean Yeu in the first round.

Sindhu, India’s best performer in women’s singles

In women’s singles, PV Sindhu made her way through to the quarters before losing 21-18, 5-21, 9-21 to Korea’s An Se Young. After winning the opening set, the two-time Olympic medallist went off the boil completely in the last two sets.

Malvika Bansod and Aakasrshi Kashyap crashed out after their first-round matches. Bansod fought hard against World No.1 Akane Yamaguchi but ended up losing the match 23-25, 19-21. On the other hand, Kashyap lost 6-21, 12-21 at the hands of Indonesia’s Komang Ayu Cahya Dewi.

In the women’s doubles, Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand Pullela also advanced to the quarter-finals before getting knocked out of the championship.