Just as India defeated Indonesia 3-0 to claim their maiden Thomas Cup crown, with the final battle becoming highly exciting as all the three matches were hard fought three game affairs where Lakshya Sen, Kidambi Srikanth won their singles tie while Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty went on to win their doubles tie.
With congratulatory messages and rewards pouring in from everywhere, Air India chimed in by tweeting, “#FlyAI: Congratulations to the Indian Men’s Badminton Team for winning the #ThomasCup2022 beating 14-times champion Indonesia today. This victory will give wings to the dreams of all young sportspersons of our country. What a proud moment.”
Thomas Cup winner Chirag Shetty was quick to take note and swiftly responded by sharing that he hopes to get a charter plane for travelling back to the country. “Hope we can get a charter plane back,” he tweeted.
Meanwhile, an unheralded Indian men’s team notched up a dominating 3-0 win over 14-time champions Indonesia to lift the Thomas Cup for the first time with Srikanth playing a crucial role as he stayed unbeaten in the tournament.
“Individual events are always different to team events and we hardly get to play team events and Thomas Cup finals are the biggest team events. So to win such a big event is a really big moment. It will actually take a while, before you know what has actually happened,” Srikanth said during a virtual press conference.
“I will rate this one of my biggest wins and I am happy that everyone played extremely well. I dont think this is one individual’s win, it is about all 10 players, Everyone stepped up when it mattered.”
Srikanth, who had claimed a silver medal at the World Championships in Spain last December, said he can’t compare his wins but it was one of his biggest in his career.
“I did well at world championships in December as well, this is another event where I did well. I just can’t compare any of my wins, I don’t want to rank any of my wins, all of them are important.
“It is definitely one of the biggest wins, best in in terms of tournaments and one of my best performances.”
Srikanth said winning for the country was a big motivating factor for the team.
“In any major event be it Commonwealth Games, Asian Games, Thomas and Uber Cup, world championships, none of them have prize money. But when you win, in this tournament, this is for the country, After we won, people said India won Thomas Cup, it was not Srikanth or Prannoy, so it itself was a special feeling,” he said.
“I don’t think every one will have the privilege to experience it, it is us 10 players and coaching staff who have experienced it now and it will motivate others to do well. So the motivating factor was that we won this for the country.” Coming into the match after two defeats against Jonatan Christie, Srikanth produced a superb show to notch up a 21-15 23-21 win over the Asian Games gold medallist.
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