It may surprise many people that in this year's Tang You Cup, the men's and women's teams of the Chinese badminton team came empty-handed. The winner of the last Thomas Cup was India, while the winner of the Uber Cup was South Korea.
In this year's Tang Cup, there are about 4 teams that are the favorites to win the championship, namely: China, India, Indonesia and Denmark. These four teams are all strong in the top two men's singles and one pair in men's doubles. And the reason why the Japanese team is not mentioned is because the Japanese team has only one men's singles and one pair of men's doubles is stronger.
On 1 May, the two favourites met in the group stage between defending champions India and Indonesia. This game really played the flavor of the final.
First of all, India's Prannoy defeated Ginting 2-1, 13-21, 21-12, 21-12 in three games.
The Men's Doubles second set was a tight affair as Indonesia's Fikri/Maulana lost 16 game points to beat India's Rankireddy/Shetty 2-1 24-22, 22-24, 21-19.
In the third set, Indonesia's Jonatan took on India's Lakshya, and Jonatan, who has been in great form this year, did not disappoint the Indonesian team, winning 2-1 to help Indonesia get their most valuable point, 21-18, 16-21, 21-17.
Indonesia, who led 2-1, boosted their morale in the fourth set as their Men's Doubles pair of Fernando/Martin defeated India's Kapila/Platek 2-0, 22-20, 21-11.
In this way, in the first four games, the Indonesian men's team has won 3:1 in advance, and the defending champion Indian team has lost the group stage.
The fifth set was played by Indonesia's Ziko against India's Srikanth, and it was irrelevant to the outcome of the match.
In this way, the Indonesian men's team qualified first in Group C, and the Indian men's team qualified in second place in Group C. The winners of the other three groups are China, the first place in Group A, the first team in Group B, Japan, and the first place Denmark in Group D.
In the knockout round that starts on May 2, the Indonesian team, which is starting to shine in the group stage, will be the strongest opponent on the way to the national championship. Our Shi Yuqi vs. Jonatan, Leung Wai Keng/Wang Chang vs. Fikri/Maulana, and Li Shifeng vs. Ginting will all be hard battles, and it can even be said that the chances of winning are a little smaller. Only by lowering the posture of the Chinese team and letting go can it be possible to get back the soup cup.