The Indian men’s and women’s team had a contrasting start to their campaign at the 2026 Thomas and Uber Cup in Horsens, Denmark on Friday.
Up against Canada, the Indian men’s team came-from-behind to register a 4-1 victory, while the women’s team went down to Denmark 2-3 later in the day.
India did not have the best of starts to their Thomas Cup campaign as Lakshya Sen went down to the 2025 BWF World Championships medallist Victor Lai in the opening match of the tie.
Sen, who had beaten Lai during his run at the 2026 All England Open Super 1000 earlier this year, went down 18-21, 21-19, 21-10 in 71 minutes to hand Canada the lead.
But India fought back with ease as Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty won their men’s doubles match 21-10, 21-11 over Jonathan Lai and Kevin Lee to put India back on level terms.
The former world No 1 pair turned the complexion of the tie as the rest of the players rode the momentum to close out the match with relative ease.
Ayush Shetty, playing the second men’s singles match, took down Brian Yang 21-13, 21-17, while Hariharan Amsakarunan and MR Arjun then sealed the tie for India with a comfortable 21-7, 21-15 win over Ty Alexander Lindeman and Nyl Yakura in the fourth match.
Veteran Kidambi Srikanth was entrusted with the responsibility of playing the dead rubber fifth match and he didn’t disappoint either, beating Joshua Nguyen 21-17, 21-12.
India lose in Uber Cup
Meanwhile, the Indian women’s team’s run are virtually out of contention from the 2026 Uber Cup after going down to Denmark, though slim mathematical chances remain.
PV Sindhu got India off to a good start in the tie as she beat Line Christophersen 21-13, 18-21, 21-17.
However, things soon went downhill as Unnati Hooda lost 12-21, 23-25 to Line Kjaersfeldt, helping the hosts equalise.
The women’s doubles pair of Priya Kongengbam and Shruti Mishra were also pipped 17-21, 21-11, 21-23 in a battle and the onus to keep India alive in the contest fell firmly on the shoulders of the 17-year-old Tanvi Sharma.
Sharma put up a brave battle but was outplayed in what was a battle of endurance by Amalie Schulz in the third women’s singles match. The teenaged Indian went down 21-19, 16-21, 16-21.
India fielded a scratch pair of Sindhu and Tanisha Crasto in the final match of the tie and they bagged a point as their opponents retired midway after picking up an injury on court.
The Indian women’s team will now have to win both their remaining matches against Ukraine and heavyweights China to stand a chance of making it through to the knockouts.
With a full strength China expected to steamroll all the teams in Group A, the opening clash between India and Denmark was touted to be the decider as to who’ll advance as the second best team from the group.
