The Indian men’s badminton team created history on Sunday as they defeated Indonesia to claim their first-ever Thomas Cup title. Kidambi Srikanth clinched the win after beating Jonatan Christie in the third match after hard-fought victories for Lakshya Sen and the pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty. India became the sixth country to win the Thomas Cup and their journey to the final included victories over former champions – Malaysia (quarterfinal) and Denmark (semi-final).
Also read | India create history, clinch maiden Thomas Cup title after thrashing Indonesia
Indian chief badminton coach Pullela Gopichand hailed the victory and said that the Thomas Cup victory is even more important to Indian badminton than the 1983 World Cup win to Indian cricket.
“It’s huge, this victory is huge. I think the way Lakshya started set the momentum up and, in these championships, especially where badminton is huge, I think that pressure just builds on. I think that the way Srikanth and Lakshya played extremely well to build the pressure and of course Satwik and Chirag were just magical,” Gopichand said in an interview with India Today.
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“I would say that in badminton terms this is even bigger (than the 1983 World Cup win). I think nobody would have imagined that we would win something as big as this. Especially if you would have gone to a badminton playing nation like China and Malaysia and say that India was going to win the Thomas Cup someday, they would have laughed at you a few years ago. But I think that the quality of singles and the doubles also have ensured that we have been able to do this,” he added.
