Dreaming of winning a historic medal in the Sudirman Cup 2023, the Indian team suffered a 4-1 defeat at the hands of Chinese Taipei in their first Group C match of the tournament on Sunday. 

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K Sai Prateek and Tanisha Crasto opened India’s Sudirman Cup 2023 campaign against Yang Po-Hsuan and Hu Ling Fang in mixed doubles match at the Suzhou Olympic Sports Centre. The Indian pair won the first game 21-18. After that, they could not hold on to their lead and lost the next two games 24-26, 6-21.

In the second match of the Sudirman Cup 2023 tie, India’s top shuttler HS Prannoy suffered a crushing 21-19, 21-15 defeat to world number five men’s singles player Chou Tien Chen. It was Prannoy’s sixth loss against Tien Chen. In the third match of the Sudirman Cup 2023 tie, India’s PV Sindhu was up against Tai Tzu Ying. Ying won her third Asian Championship title in Dubai last month. World number three Ying won the first game 21-14. While Sindhu won the second game 21-18 to take the match to the third game. In the deciding game, Ying showed composure and discipline to win the match with a 21–17 victory. This win gave Chinese Taipei a 3–0 lead over India.

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Meanwhile, in the men’s doubles match, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty were up against world no. No.12 Lee Yang and Ye Hong Wei but lost 13-21, 21-17, 18-21. Though the women’s doubles pair won the final to give the Indian camp a chance to cheer. Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand defeated Lee Chia Hsin and Teng Chun Hsun 15-21, 21-18, 21-13 in the last match of the Sudirman Cup 2023 tie. 

After this defeat, India is third in the Sudirman Cup 2023 points table of Group C. Their next match will be against Malaysia on Monday. While in the last match of the group stage, they will face Australia on Tuesday.