After bronze in Dubai, Vimal Kumar hopeful of India winning Sudirman Cup

Vimal Kumar

India's first-ever bronze medal at the Asia Badminton Mixed team championships has shown that the country can win the Sudirman Cup this year, feels former national coach Vimal Kumar.

India on Saturday narrowly went down 2-3 to formidable China in the semi-finals to sign off their campaign with a maiden bronze medal in Dubai. It was a creditable performance since India were without the services of an injured Satwiksairaj Rankireddy but the men's pair of Chirag Shetty-Dhruv Kapila and young women's doubles duo of Treesa Jolly-Gayatri Gopichand dished out superlative shows to take India to the semi-finals.

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"Once Satwik comes back, we will have a strong doubles pair and our singles have always been strong. Prannoy and Sindhu are also capable of beating anybody. So I feel we have a decent chance to win the Sudirman Cup," said Vimal, who was present when the men's team won the Thomas Cup title last year.

"The ladies doubles have also shown good level, especially Treesa and Gayatri beating the Malaysian top doubles pair [World No. 4 Tan Pearly and Thinaah Muralitharan] will give them a lot of confidence. We can't say it's too ambitious [to win Sudirman Cup]. We can. It is exactly what we did in Thomas cup. We can be hopeful after this performance."

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