Thomas Cup: India win historic gold medal after beating Indonesia in final-Sports News , Firstpost

India won Thomas Cup 2022 gold medal by beating Indonesia. AP

India won a historic gold at the Thomas Cup 2022 on Sunday by beating heavyweights and 14-time winners Indonesia 3-0 in Bangkok. While Indonesia are the most successful side at the event, India were playing in their first-ever final.

India’s previous best performance at the event was bronze medals in 1979, 1955 and 1952.

After Lakshya Sen and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty made it 2-0 in the best-of-five contest, Kidambi Srikanth clinched the gold medal for India by beating Jonatan Christie 21-18, 23-21.

In the first match of the tie, world number nine Lakshya Sen squared off against world number four Anthony Sinisuka Ginting. The Indian entered the match with a 1-0 head-to-head advantage and further extended his dominance with an 8-21, 21-17, 21-16 win in a match that lasted 65 minutes.

In the second game of the tie, the doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty played Mohammad Ahsan and Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo. In their only previous meeting, the Indian duo had won 18-21, 21-18, 24-22, at the Asian Championship in 2018.

On Sunday, however, they lost the first game 18-21 before saving four match points in the second to script a sensational turnaround as they won the last two games 21-23, 21-19. The match that lasted 73 minutes helped India take a 2-0 lead.

This was India’s maiden appearance in the prestigious event as they entered the summit clash by clinching a historic 3-2 win over Denmark in the semi-finals. The journey to the semis was also nothing short of history.

Their 3-2 win over Malaysia in the quarter-finals helped India secure bronze in the Thomas Cup — the first at the event since the change of format. They had last won a bronze in 1979 by reaching the inter-zonal finals.

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