Indian men assured themselves of a medal when they beat Nepal 3-0 and ended a 37-year drought in the badminton team event at the Asian Games on Friday.
But the women's team suffered a 3-0 loss to Thailand in the quarterfinals. PV Sindhu lost to Pornpawee Chochuwong 21-14, 15-21, 14-21, Ashmita Chaliha lost 21-9, 21-16 to Busanan Ongbamrungphan and the doubles duo of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand went down to Jongkolphan Kititharakul and Rawinda Prajongjai 19-21, 5-21.
Indian men drubbed Nepal to reach the semifinals for the first time since 1986 Seoul Games. India rested HS Prannoy, who is nursing minor niggles, and fielded Mithun Manjunath in singles. Former World championships bronze medallist Lakshya Sen breezed past Prince Dahal 21-5, 21-8 in 22 minutes. Kidambi Srikanth downed Sunil Joshi 21-4, 21-13 in second singles. National champion Manjunath won the tie for India when he trounced Bishnu Katuwal 21-2, 21-7.
In 1986, the team comprising Prakash Padukone, U Vimal Kumar, Uday Pawar, Leroy D'Sa, Ravi Kunte, Sanat Misra and Syed Modi had won the team bronze. Then India had lost 1-4 to China in the semifinals. Padukone won the first singles against Zhao Jianhua and India lost the next four matches.
In the semifinals on Saturday, India will face South Korea, who stunned Indonesia 3-1. The Koreans have formidable doubles outfits, including reigning World Champions Seo Seungjae and Kang Minhyuk, who downed World No.1 pair of Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Rian.
In the other quarterfinals, Japan defeated Hong Kong 3-1 and China downed Chinese Taipei 3-1. The women's semifinals will see Thailand face South Korea and China play Japan.
