Badminton Asia Team C'ships: Indian women lose to Japan

Alor Setar, [Malaysia]: Rio Olympics silver-medallist P.V. Sindhu was the only one to manage a win over her opponent as the Indian women team lost 4-1 to Japan in the Badminton Asian Team Championships at the Sultan Abdul Halim Stadium here on Thursday.

In the first women's singles, the Indian heavyweight defeated world No. 2 Akane Yamaguchi 21-19, 21-15 without much fuss.

Sindhu had earlier tasted a defeat from Yamaguchi in the Dubai World Superseries Finals.

In another singles, world No.13 Sayaka Sato pipped Sri Krishna Priya 21-12, 21-12 to level the team score to 1-1.

Later, Ashwini Ponappa was defeated 14-21, 12-21 by world No.16 Aya Ohori

In the women's doubles, the Indian duo of Sanyogita Ghorpade and Prajakta Sawant lost 17-21, 17-21 to the team of Shiho Tanaka and Koharu Yonemoto as Japan took an unassailable lead of 3-1.

The other women's doubles the pair of Misaki Matsutomo and Ayaka Takahashi defeated Ashwini and N Sikki Reddy 21-18, 21-18.

Japan and India both qualified for the quarter-finals with the first and second spots in their group respectively.

Earlier, the women's team led by Sindhu defeated Hong Kong by 3-2 in the tournament which also serves as Asian qualification for the 2018 Thomas and Uber Cup.

Later in the day, the men's team will face Indonesia.

They had earlier defeated both the Philippines and the Maldives by 5-0