India created history in badminton by reaching the final of the Thomas Cup on Friday. This is a major feat given India has not got a single medal in the 74-year history of the Thomas Cup. This time they defeated the 2016 champion, Denmark by 3-2 and has ensured at least a silver medal for itself, while eyeing the gold. World Championship silver medallist Kidambi Srikanth accomplished this stupendous feat by leading India to victory in the singles, and the pair of Satwik Sairaj Ranki Reddy and Chirag Shetty in doubles. Finally H.S. Prannoy won against Rasmus Gemke by 13-21, 21-9, 21-12.
In the first game, Prannoy trailed by 3-8. Gemke kept patience and kept looking for opportunity to attack during the rally and eventually found one. He won a couple of points on the net. Finally, with a down the line smash, Gemke wrapped up the opening game by 21-13. It was an all out attack in the second game by Prannoy with a cross court drop shots and down the line smashes and he won the second game 21-9 to equalise 1-1. In the decider, unbelievable miss from Gemke allowed Prannoy to win the decisive game by 21-12 and tie.
India had high hopes from Lakshya Sen, bronze medallist of the World Championship as he defeated former world champion Loh Kean Yew in this year’s India Open final. In German Open he defeated world number one Viktor Axelsen in semi-finals. At the All England Badminton, after defeating World No. 3 and World No. 7, he surprised everyone by making it to the finals, but Viktor Axelsen made him pay for the previous defeat. But this player could not perform in the Thomas Cup as expected from him. The same thing happened here in the first match as well. This time Lakshya Sen lost 13-21, 13-21 to Viktor Axelsen, who is a current Olympic champion and defeated Lakshya Sen fifth time in six encounters.
He found his rhythm early in the match. There were moments of brilliance from Sen but those weren’t enough to challenge the former world champion, who won the first game convincingly. In the second game, Axelsen used his powerful smashes to dominate Sen. The young Indian tried hard to defend but long rallies took a toll on him. Axelsen performed a good baseline game and won the second one with the same score.
In the first doubles match Satwiksairaj Rankireddy/Chirag Shetty won 21-18, 21-23, 22-20 against Kim Astrup/Mathias Christiansen. The biggest highlight of this match was Chirag’s brilliant cross court and lovely body smash. Of the 30 Thomas Cup tournaments held since 1948–1949, only five countries have won the title. Indonesia is the most successful team, having won 14 times. China, which did not compete until 1982, trails behind Indonesia with 10 titles, while Malaysia has won 5 titles. Japan and Denmark both have one title each.
Kidambi Srikanth rode on his superior and varied strokeplay to outclass Anders Antonsen by 21-18, 12-21, 21-15 and give India a 2-1 lead. He won the opening game but accurate cross-court backhand from Antonsen landed perfectly as he won the second game and forced the decider. In the final game, Srikanth buried the cross court smash to win the match and move India ahead in the semi-final.
In the second doubles match, Krishna Prasad Garaga/Vishnuvardhan Goud Panjala lost to Anders Skaarup Rasmussen/Frederik SGAARD by 14-21, 13-21. In badminton, India had laid the foundation for this big success by winning silver and bronze medals in the men’s section of the World Championship this year. India got three consecutive Olympic medals and now it was the turn of the Thomas Cup, in which India had never progressed beyond the semi-finals. India did make it to the semi-finals in 1952, 1955 and 1979, but then India could not get a medal due to different formats. When India reached the semi-finals after 43 years, every Indian started hoping for a gold medal. Everyone’s eyes were on the entire Indian contingent including Kidambi Srikanth.
Thomas Cup and, to a lesser extent, Uber Cup are some of the world’s “biggest” and most prestigious regularly held badminton events in terms of player and fan interest.