Thomas Cup: Malaysia beat India 4-1

New Delhi: By giving away only one point, Malaysia successfully defeated India in the opening game.

Malaysia’s first singles, world No. 1 Lee Chong Wei faced some challenges from K. Srikanth in the first set before he took the game with 21-19; He finished off Srikanth 21-12 quickly in the second set to win the first point for Malaysia in just 35 minutes. Then, it was a surprise to see Malaysia played Hoon Thien How and Tan Boon Heong as the first doubles, they were the world junior champion in 2004, but their partnership was ended after Tan partnered with Koo Kien Keat. Tan Boon Heong-Hoon Thien How was able to score the second point for Malaysia with 21-14, 21-11 win over Sumeeth Reddy-Manu Attri.

In the do-or-die match for India, India’s captain Parupalli Kashyap failed to live up to the expectations and lost the second singles match 13-21, 6-21 to Chong Wei Feng in half an hour.

However, the Malaysian must play better and smarter to ensure a last eight berth when the scratch second doubles pair Tan Wee Kiong-Goh V Shem looked shaky by beating Akshay Dewalkar-Pranaav Jerry Chopra 21-17, 14-21, and 21-14.

The only point for India was through its third singles R.M.V. Gurusaidutt, he overcame a 3 point deficit in the decider when trailing 18-15 to eventually snare the victory. He beat Malaysia’s captain Daren Liew 18-21 21-13 21-19.

In the other group C game, Germany gave Korea a scare when Son Wan-Ho lost to Marc Zwiebler 18-21 17-21, and Lee Dong Keun lost to Dieter Domke 17-21 16-21 before the Korea fend off Germany to win at 3-2.

Rashid Sidek – Malaysia’s Thomas Cup project leader agreed that with their performance today, the Germans will be more confident tomorrow.

“We will not underestimate Germany. They played exceptionally well today. When we play them tomorrow, we hope to score a point through Chong Wei, and our second and third singles can go either way,” said Rashid.

“Our doubles will have to step up tomorrow, it is going to be disastrous if we lose one or both men’s doubles,” added Rashid.

“If we win the Germany game, we should be ready for the South Korean on Wednesday,” said Rashid.