India’s campaign at the Sudirman Cup ended after they went down 0-3 against top seed and 10-time champions China in the quarterfinals of the mixed team championship here Friday.
It was always going to be an uphill task for the ninth seeded Indian team to breach the Chinese wall and though the mixed doubles pair of Ashwini Ponnappa and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy put up a gritty show to challenge the World No. 2 pair of Lu Kai and Huang Yaqiong, they ultimately went down.
The experienced Chinese combination had the last laugh as they beat Ashwini and Satwiksairaj 16-21, 17-21 defeat against Long that saw India slip to a 0-2 deficit in the five-match rubber.
Young pair of Satwiksairaj and Chirag Sen then faced Fu Haifeng and Zhang Nan in the mixed doubles match and capitulated 9-21, 11-21 within half an hour as China registered a 3-0 win over India.
