India were off to a flying start in the Thomas Cup men's badminton championship, clinching all the three singles to sweep aside Singapore 4-1 in Jaipur on Thursday.
In the Uber cup, the women's team put up a spirited show but went down fighting 2-3 to second seeds Hong Kong in Group 'Y'.
The men's team, comprising Chetan Anand, Anoop Sridhar and Arvind Bhatt, won its first three singles to seal the issue in the group 'C' tie. All of them lost their first games but fought back to win their respective matches.
Chetan Anand, who lost to Lee-yen Kendrick in the All England Championship, avenged his defeat as he fought back from a game down to win the first singles.
Anand lost the first game 12-21 to the world number 40 but came back strongly to pocket the next two 21-16, 21-11.
Arvind Bhatt too began in similar fashion as he lost the first game 17-21 to world number 228 TanWei Kiat Aaron. Bhatt then overcame Aaraon's resistance, winning 21-12, 21-18 in the next two games, and put India in a strong 2-0 position.
National Champion Anoop Sridhar, who faced Wijaya Hendra in the third singles, had a tough time negotiating his opponent's deceptive shots.
After the 14-21 loss in the first game, Anoop, who is just back from Denmark after playing in the elite division league in Copenhegan, subdued his aggressive opponent by slowing down the pace of the game.
He won the second game 21-19 and third 21-17 to settle the issue in India's favour.
The Indian doubles pair of Rupesh Kumar and Sanave Thomas won 21-12, 21-11 against Fuzhi Hui Alvin and Khookian Teck but V Diju and Ismail Jaseel went down 15-21, 21-13, 21-23 to W Hendra and S H Kurniawan.
In the Uber Cup, the Indian women, who pulled off a thrilling victory against Thailand on Wednesday, were once again on course for an upset against second seed Hong Kong but lost the tie in the deciding match.
Aparna Popat could not repeat her performance of Wednesday and lost 21-10, 21-10 to Wan Cheng in just 22 minutes.
Trupti Murugunde too could not live up to expectations and went down 18-21, 15-21 against world number 27 Yip Pui Yin.
It was then left to promising starlet Saina Nehwal to keep India in the hunt and she did not disappoint.
Saina stunned Wong Sin Yee 21-6, 21-4 before the doubles pair of Jwala Gutta and Shruti Kurian restored parity.
They lost the first game 22-24 against Koon Wai Chee Lousia and Li Wing Mui, the world number 20, but clinched the next two 21-19, 21-9.
With the scores level 2-2, India's hopes of an upset rested upon B R Meenakshi and Aparna Balan but the duo failed to steal a win, going down 10-21, 12-21 in just 19 minutes.
