Ichinomiya City: India defeated Bangladesh 3-0, without dropping a single game across three matches, to reach the men’s badminton team quarter-finals here at the Ichinomiya City Municipal Gymnasium on Monday.
Lakshya Sen beat Jaman Ayman Ibn, followed by Ayush Shetty’s win over Gourab Singha. Kidambi Srikanth then sealed the tie with a victory over Jumar Al-Amin.
India will face hosts Japan in the quarter-finals on Tuesday, with a win in the tie guaranteeing the team a medal.
Paris 2024 semi-finalist Lakshya comfortably beat Ayman Ibn 21-4, 21-12 to give India a 1-0 lead. Ayush registered a convincing 21-4, 21-13 win over Singha to stretch the lead to 2-0, before Srikanth sealed the tie with a 21-15, 21-9 victory over Jumar Al-Amin.
India, silver medallists in the team event at Hangzhou 2023, progressed without needing to field their doubles combinations, including world No. 5 Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, the reigning Asian Games men’s doubles champions.
The reigning silver medallists’ quarterfinal against Japan would set up a possible singles battle between Lakshya and Kodai Naraoka, while Ayush could meet Yushi Tanaka. Satwik and Chirag could face the Japanese pairing of Hiroki Okamura and Takuro Hoki, depending on the tie-ups.
India beat the Republic of Korea 3-2 in the semi-finals at Hangzhou 2023 before settling for silver after losing to China in the gold-medal tie.
The Indian women’s team will also face Japan in the quarter-finals on Tuesday after beating Kazakhstan 3-0 in its opening tie on Sunday.
(IANS)
