Bangkok: In the Thomas Cup Group A tie between defending champions – Singapore and Indonesia, the reigning World Champion Loh Kean Yew from Singapore was up against World No. 5 Anthony Sinisuka Ginting of Indonesia in the 1st men’s singles match. The Singaporean needed only 37 minutes to see off Ginting in straight games 21-13, 21-14, and gave Singapore a 1-0 lead.
Terry Hee Yong Kai/Loh Kean Hean of Singapore gave a tough fight to Fajar Alfian/Muhammad Rian Ardianto but eventually lost the first men’s doubles match 14-21, 21-19, 12-21 after 47 minutes contest.
From there on, Indonesia’s men’s singles World No. 8 Jonatan Christie, men’s doubles World No. 21 Muhammad Shohibul Fikri/Bagas Maulana, and men’s singles World No. 24 Shesar Hiren Rhustavito faced no problem seeing off their respective Singaporean opponents to give Indonesia a 4-1 victory.
Spearheaded by World No. 4 men’s singles player Chou Tien Chen, and the Tokyo Olympics men’s doubles champions Lee Yang/Wang Chi-Lin, Chinese Taipei opened their campaign with a 5-0 win over Canada.
India’s men’s team also got off to a strong start on Sunday by beating Germany 5-0.
