Thomas Cup: India thrash Netherlands 5-0 in group opener

The Indian men's team enjoyed a comfortable outing in the Thomas Cup as they thrashed the team from the Netherlands by 5-0 here at the Ceres Arena in Aarhus on Sunday in their Group C opener.

Former world No. 1 Kidambi Srikanth began proceedings with a 21-12, 21-14 win over Joran Kweekel.

The men's doubles pair of Chirag Shetty/Satwiksairaj Rankireddy, who made their Olympic debuts at Tokyo 2020, then got the better of Ruben Jille/Ties van der Lecq 21-19, 21-12 to give India a 2-0 lead.

World championships bronze-medallist B Sai Praneeth soon sealed the tie for India with a routine 21-4, 21-12 win over Robin Mesman.

The pair of MR Arjun/Dhruv Kapila made it 4-0 after beating Andy Buijk/Brian Wassnik 21-12, 21-13 in just over half an hour.

In the final match of the tie, Sameer Verma made it a 5-0 clean sweep with another comfortable 21-6, 21-11 win over Gijs Duijs.

The Indian men next play Tahiti in Group C on Tuesday and could seal their place in the quarter-finals with a victory.

( With inputs from ANI )