Thomas Cup: India trounce Australia

P Kashyap and Arvind Bhat did the star turn as India trounced Australia 4-1 and advanced to the last eight stage of the Thomas Cup finals even as the women's team went down 1-4 to Korea despite Saina Nehwal's thrilling win over Seung Hee Bae in the Uber Cup, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on Tuesday.

Kashyap set the ball rolling for India, spanking Jeff Tho 21-8, 21-10 in a 26-minute match, while Arvind Bhat and Gurusaidutt also won their respective matches to put India 3-0 ahead after the first three singles.

Arvind beat Chad Whitehead 21-6, 21-12, while Gurusaidutt took 25 minutes to pack off Stuart Gomez 21-15, 21-13.

The only blot on the men's team victory was a 20-22, 18-21 thrashing Sanave Thomas and Rupesh Kumar received at the hands of Glenn Warfe and Ross Smith in first men's doubles.

However, V Diju and Akshay Dewalkar swept past Raj Veeran and Chad Whitehead 21-12, 21-17 to seal a 4-1 victory.

"It was a satisfying day for us but I am a little surprised by the doubles loss. It was unexpected, but, otherwise, everybody played upto the mark. There will be a draw of lots and we will come to know tonight who we play tomorrow," Arvind said from Kuala Lumpur.

Asked about the conditions, Arvind said, "It is a little windy inside, so there is a bit of drift… so the shuttle moves more in the air. But we cannot complain because it is same for our rivals."

The women's Uber Cup team, which had already reached the quarter-finals on Monday, however, had a tough day as none apart from Saina could get past the formidable Koreans.

World number six Saina started the Indian proceedings, carving out a hard-fought 22-20, 18-21, 17-21 win over Seung Hee Bae in a 66-minute marathon battle.

But the Koreans were quick to draw parity with Hyo Jung Lee and Min Jung Kim seeing off Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa 21-11, 21-13 in the first women's doubles match.

Levelled 1-1, pressure was on Aditi Mutatkar to bring India back into the tie and the Pune girl snatched the first game 23-21 from Ji Hyun Sung to start on a positive note.

But the world number 26 Korean bounced back to take her team to a 3-1 lead, rendering the last two matches of merely academic interest.

Shruti Kurian and Aparna Balan went down 13-21, 11-21 to Kyung Won Lee and Jung Eun Ha in the second women's doubles, while a gritty Sayali Gokhale played a brilliant game before losing 10-21, 21-19, 12-21 to Yun Hwa Lee in 47 minutes.