India Thomas Cup Champions: India has created history in the Thomas Cup badminton tournament. The team has won the gold medal by winning the final title for the first time.
Team India clean sweep Indonesia 3-0 in the final. In the first match, Lakshya Sen defeated Anthony Sinisuka 8-21, 21-17, 21-16. In the second doubles, the pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty won 18-21, 23-21, and 21-19. The third match was singles, in which Kidambi Srikanth defeated Jonathan Christie 21-15, 23-21.
The Indian team made it to the finals for the first time by defeating teams like Malaysia and Denmark, so the team's confidence was very strong. Now history has been created by defeating the 14-time record champion Indonesia in the final.
The third match was played in singles. Kidambi Srikanth and Jonathan Christie were faces to face in this. Kidambi maintained his dominance in the match from the very beginning and did not give Christie a chance in the match in any way. Kinda defeated Christie 21-15, and 23-21 in straight sets. Kidambi's victory made Team India 3-0 in the final.
The second match was played in doubles, in which the Indian pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty faced the pair of Kevin Sanjaya and Mohammad Ahsan. The match was very exciting. In this, the Indonesian pair won the first set 21-18. Whereas in the second set, the Indian pair turned the tables and won the set 23-21 to level the match. After this, the third set was also won by the Indian pair by a margin of 21-19. With this victory, India took a 2-0 lead in the match.
Also Read: Indian team created history defeated the 14-time Champions, Indonesia (3-0) to win its first-ever Thomas Cup
Match 1: Lakshya beat Anthony
In the first match, Lakshya Sen played against Anthony Sinisuka, which was quite exciting. Anthony won the first set 21-8, and while winning the second set 21-17, Lakshya levelled the match.
Lakshya won the match by winning the third set 21-16.
Indonesia has a great record in this tournament and has been unbeaten in the current tournament so far. Whereas the Indian team got its only defeat in the group stage against Chinese Taipei. But now India defeated Indonesia in the final.
Singles: Lakshya Sen, Kidambi Srikanth, HS Prannoy, Priyanshu Rajavati.
Doubles: Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty, Vishnuvardhan Goud Panjala-Krishna Prasad Garaga, MR Arjuna-Dhruv Kapila.
Historic Win after 73-years
India has become the sixth country to win this tournament, so far the Thomas Cup has been held 32 times and only five countries have been able to become winners. India has become the sixth country to win this tournament. Indonesia is the most successful team in the Thomas Cup.
So far, he has won the title 14 times. The Chinese team, which has been participating in this tournament since 1982, has won 10 titles and Malaysia has won 5 titles. Japan and Denmark both have one title each. The Thomas Cup has always been won by Asian countries. Denmark was the first non-Asian team to win the title in 2016.
The idea of organizing the Thomas Cup was started in 1948-49 by English badminton player Sir George Allan Thomas. He was a hugely successful badminton player in the early 1900s. He also wanted to organize such a tournament for men in badminton on the lines of the Football World Cup and the Davis Cup in tennis.
For the first time, this tournament took place on English soil in 1948-49. The Thomas Cup was previously held in three years, since 1982 it has been held in two years.