Former world number one Kidambi Srikanth will spearhead the Indian challenge at the Thailand Masters 2025 badminton tournament starting from Tuesday at Nimibutr Stadium in Pathumwan.
While the Thomas Cup is the world badminton team championship for men, the Uber Cup is the women’s version. Both championships are held simultaneously biannually.
Seeded second, Sindhu defeated world No. 49 Wen Yu Zhang of Canada 21-16, 21-12 in 30 minutes in her round of 32 match. The Indian,11th in the badminton rankings, will now take on world No. 63 Huang Yu-Husn of Chinese Taipei in the second round.
Srikanth secured a comfortable 21-10, 21-14 victory over world No. 34 Chia Hao Lee to qualify for his first semi-final on the BWF World Tour since November 2022.
Sindhu will now take on the winner of the clash between world No. 1 An Se-young o Korea and Chinese Taipei’s Hsu Wen-chi.
The team championship will be played on February 22 and 23 with a prize purse of Rs 10 Lakhs, while individual championships will have Rs 40-lakhs as prize money.
Lakshya was tested in the first game but was dominant in the second to register a 21-17, 21-10 win over Luis Penalver. Indian won seven straight points after trailing 4-6 to take a healthy lead to the interval.
Prannoy and Srikanth both won their matches in straight games as they faced off in the semifinals of the 2021 competition.
Lakshya, who was seeded ninth, won the bronze medal at Huelva's hosting of the competition in 2021.
Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand of India won bronze in the badminton women's singles after defeating Australia's Chen Hsuan-Yu Wendy and Gronya Somerville in straight games 21-15, 21-19.
