Ranking is just a reflection of current form, not the class. In April, China’s two-time Olympic champion lin Dan returned to competitive badminton after an eight-month break with his ranking going down to 104.
He won the China Masters convincingly and a few days later went on to win the Asian Badminton Championships proving his class, once again.
Now, he is ranked 58th and has entered as China’s fourth best singles player for the Thomas Cup, the prestigious men’s team championship event that starts on Sunday alongside women’s world team event for the Uber Cup at the Siri Fort Sports Complex here. Despite having the services of world No. 2 Chen long, 6th-ranked Du Pengyu and 16th-ranked Tian Houwei, who are quite capable of winning the tournament own their own, China’s decision to include Dan in the team shows the importance the country gives to the Thomas Cup — which is a 16-team affair this time.
Dan is expected to play as the third singles player for China, who are looking to win the sixth successive title.Adding the spark to the event will be Malaysian skipper and world No 1 lee Chong Wei. Denmark, Thailand, Indonesia, Korea and Germany are the other teams who will be favourites for top four.
Hosts India, to be lead by Parupalli Kashyap, are placed alongside Malaysia, Korea and Germany in Pool C and face a stiff challenge. Others in the hosts team are 18th-ranked young K Srikanth, who is expected to take on Malysian maestro Chong Wei, in their opener. India’s possible doubles pairs include Pranaav Jerry Chopra, Akshay Dewalkar, Manu Attri, Arun Vishnu and B Sumeeth Reddy.
Women power
The presence of world’s top three singles stars in Olympics champion li Xuerui, Shixian Wang and Yihan Wang and world’s top two doubles pairs in Xiaoli Wang-Yang Yu and Yixin Bao-Tang Jinhua, make China’s women’s team a side to beat in the event. Korea, Thailand, India, Japan, Denmark, Malysia and Germany are other teams who will be favourites to enter quarterfinal stage.
london Olympics bronze medalist and world No 8 Saina Nehwal, world championships bronze medal winner and world No 11 PV Sindhu are the automatic choices for first two singles. Other singles options are Sayali Gokhle, Tanvi laad and PC Thulasi.
2011 World Championships bronze medalist pair of Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponappa will be the leading doubles pair and both of them are high on confidence after their good performance at the Asian Badminton Championships recently. For the second doubles tie, India will have to choose from Aparna Balan, N Sikki Reddy and Pradnya Gadre.
The hosts are placed in Pool C alongside Thailand, Canada and Hong Kong. “We have a good chance to qualify for the quarterfinals in the women’s section while the men would have to really play well in what is a very tough group,” said chief coach Pullela Gopi Chand.
India kick off their campaign against Thailand, who has three strong singles shuttlers in world champion Ratchanok Intanon, world No 9 Porntip Buranaprasertsuk and world No 15 Nichaon Jindapon. Thailand also have two doubles pair who are among top ten in the world rankings and they will make sure that India work hard for a win on Sunday.