Why Thailand Open 2022 proved to be a disappointment for India

The results weren’t as expected especially after the monumental Thomas Cup victory.

It was one of the most desired and iconic feats for the Indian badminton after they lifted their very first Thomas Cup title. It also made India only the sixth different country to win the World Men’s Team Championship. As India had always had average showings in team games, adding a title like Thomas Cup was nothing but a matter of reputation.

As memorable and major achievements come the player’s way, they are expected to continue from where they left off. However, things seemed to happen otherwise in the very next tournament for Indian shuttlers.

The Thailand Open Super 500 was expected to be a bright one for the Indian players considering their form after the Thomas Cup. However, things could hardly fall into place for any of them. Let’s have a look at the performances in every discipline at the Thailand Open.

Men's Singles

Srikanth Kidambi and H.S Prannoy, who had been the main architects for India’s Thomas Cup win, ended their campaign unexpectedly. While Srikanth gave a walkover to his second-round opponent after winning his first match, Prannoy surprisingly went down against Liew Daren of Malaysia.

Similarly, Sai Praneeth and Sourabh Verma also ended their run against Kantaphon Wangcharoen and Toma Popov respectively. Praneeth had enjoyed a better head-to-head record against his opponent, but his journey getting cut short easily.

Men's doubles

After men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty withdrew from the tournament due to injury, the onus was on the younger pairs for a tough competition. However, no pair could cross the barrier of the first round.

Not only this, none of the pairs except Arjun MR and Dhruv Kapila gave a fightback as their game went to full distance. However, they too ended up losing in a close encounter. All the other pairs lost in one sided matches.

Women's singles

PV Sindhu was the only Indian player across all the disciplines to reach the semi-finals of the Thailand Open 2022. As for her own discipline, majority of Indian shuttlers faltered in the first round.

Ashmita Chaliha lost to Ratchanok Intanon of Thailand while Aakarshi Kashyap couldn’t get the better of Michelle Li as well.

Former World no.1 Saina Nehwal also lost to Kim-g Eun of Korea. The Indian player had already been going through a bad form and losing in early stages of many tournaments.

Women's and Mixed Doubles

In the women’s doubles the charge was led by younger pairs in the absence of Ashwini Ponnappa and Sikki Reddy. The competition in the Thailan Open 2022 draw seemed to be light. Hence, majority of the pairs should have reached the final stages. However, whatever happened was contrary to the expectations. Only the pair of Ashwini Bhat and Shikha Gautam produced the best result in the draw by proceeding to the second round. However, even their journey was terminated by former World Champions Mayu Matsumoto and Wakana Nagahara of Japan.

Similarly, in the mixed doubles, only Ishaan Bhatnagar and Tanisha Crasto managed to reach the second round while the other players bowed out in the first round.

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