India lose opening Thomas Cup tie to Malaysia

New Delhi, May 18 (IANS) India lost the first three matches to hand their opening Thomas Cup badminton tie against Malaysia 0-3 at the Siri Fort Sports Complex here Sunday.

World No.18 Kidambi Srikanth went down to World No.1 Lee Chong Wei 19-21, 12-21 in the first singles which was followed by B. Sumeet Reddy and Manu Attri’s 14-21, 11-21 loss to Boon Heong Tan and Thien How Hoon in the men’s doubles.

A lot depended on captain Parupalli Kashyap in the do-or-die match but the Hyderabadi failed to live up to the expectations and lost the second singles match 13-21, 6-21 to Wei Feng Chong in half an hour.

Akshay Dewalkar/Pranaav Chopra (doubles) and R.M.V. Gurusaidutt (singles) will play their dead rubbers later.

The Indian women, led by Saina Nehwal, will play their Uber Cup tie against Canada later in the day.