India was knocked out of the Sudirman Cup after a 0-5 defeat by Malaysia in their second group C match in Suzhou, China on Monday.
PV Sindhu, Kidambi Srikanth, and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy – Chirag Shetty came up short as India failed to qualify in the third consecutive edition. India reached the finals only in 2011 and 2017.
After the 1-4 defeat to Chinese Taipei on Sunday, India banked on their singles players and one of the three doubles teams to win against Malaysia. Fielding Srikanth ahead of HS Prannoy also backfired. The mixed pair of Dhruv Kapila and Ashwini Ponnappa did well in patches before succumbing to Goh Soon Huat and Lai Shevon Jemie 16-21, 17-21.
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Srikanth struggled against Lee Zii Jia. Srikanth defeated Lee at the Japan Open last August, but the former world No. 1 lost 16-21, 11-21. Sindhu, who had a 4-0 record against Goh Jin Wei, lost 21-14, 10-21, 20-22.
After losing the second game, Sindhu tried in the third. Trailing 4-14, Sindhu covered the gap but Goh scored two big points at 20-20 to give a 3-0 victory to Malaysia.
Later, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy, Chirag Shetty, Treesa Jolly, and Gayatri Gopichand also lost. Satwik-Chirag faltered against Aaron Chia and Soh-Wooi Yik 18-21, 19-21. The Indians have not beaten this Malaysian pair after eight encounters.
Pearly Tan and Thinaah Muralitharan defeated Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand 21-15, 21-13.
Malaysia and Chinese Taipei made the exit of this group. Both teams defeated India and Australia.
On Wednesday, India will play an inconsequential match against Australia.
