India clinched their first-ever medal in the sport of badminton at the World University Games after losing their mixed team semifinal match to Chinese Taipei in Rhine-Ruhr, Germany, on Sunday.
Earlier, the Indian team, led by Sathish Kumar Karunakaran, registered a 3-2 win over Malaysia in the quarter-finals on Saturday to confirm a historic medal for the Indian badminton contingent.
However, the team could not progress further and lost a four-match tie against Chinese Taipei. Devika Sihag was the only one to clinch one point in a tie for India with a win against higher ranked Huang Ching Ping.
India beats Malaysia in Semi-Final
India started off well in the quarter-finals with the mixed doubles pair of Sathish Karunakaran and Vaishnavi Khadekar recording a 15-9, 11-15, 15-11 win in first match of the tie.
Malaysia, however, equalised as Saneeth Dayanand went down 15-9, 13-15, 11-15 after being a game up in the men’s singles encounter.
Undeterred by Malaysia’s fight back, the young Devika Sihag won the women’s singles match 15-8, 8-15, 15-12 to help India take a 2-1 lead.
Malaysia weren’t to be pushovers as they once again fought back to equalise. The Indian men’s doubles pair of Saneeth and Sathish went down 8-15, 6-15 in straight games.
Forced into a must-win situation to keep India’s campaign alive, the women’s doubles pair of Tasnim Mir and Varshini Sri did not have the best of starts as they lost the opening game 9-15.
The youngsters, though, held their nerves well to win the next two games with an identical 15-13, 15-13 score line to push India through to the semi-finals and secure the country’s first medal at the 2025 World University Games.
