Indian eves give Japan a fright

The Indian women's team fought gallantly against second seeds Japan but went down 2-3 in a Group A league encounter in the Uber Cup Asian Zone (preliminaries) badminton tournament in Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday.

In the men's Thomas Cup league match, India thrashed rank-outsiders Macau 5-0 to assure themselves at least the second spot in Group A.

But it was the Indian women who stole the limelight against the highly rated Japanese, who were expected to run through the Indians.

Japan's decision to leave out World No. 10 Kanako Yonekura backfired badly in the very first rubber as national champion Aparna Popat upset Miho Tanaka 11-8, 7-11, 11-2 to put India 1-0 ahead.

Popat, ranked 24th, began superbly against her opponent, ranked 10 places higher, to win the first game with relative ease.

The Indian, however, lost her footing in the second game, losing 7-11, but came back strongly in the third to take the match in 55 minutes.

The lead gave India a big chance to cause a sensational upset as Japan were under pressure to win both the doubles matches and the second singles to take the tie.

But despite a fighting performance from the top Indian doubles pair of Jwala Gutta and Shruti Kurien, the 10th ranked Japanese team of Shizuka Yamamoto and Seiko Yamada won 15-7, 15-3 to level the match 1-1.

World No. 16 Kaori Mori then put Japan ahead beating B R Meenakshi 11-9, 11-4 in the second singles.

The favourites never looked back then as Keiko Yoshitomi and Kumiko Ogura beat Fatima Nazneen and Manjusha Kanwar 15-4, 15-3 to give Japan an unbeatable 3-1 lead.

In the inconsequential fifth rubber, Trupti Murgunde again dented Japanese pride by coming back from a game down to beat Yu Hirayama 4-11, 11-4, 13-10.

The Indian eves now have to beat Hong Kong and Malaysia to keep their semi-final hopes alive.

The top two teams from each group progress to the last four to fight for three berths in the Uber Cup finals, to be held in May.