A world No.265 gave Czechia their first win in their debut at the Thomas Cup with the biggest upset of the tournament so far. Jirí Kral could barely believe what he had pulled off after he’d taken down world No.23 Wang Tzu Wei in a Group B tie.

Showing the composure of someone ranked far higher, Kral nicked a close first game from Wang and then repeated that feat at the death, with Wang rapidly closing in on him. The 24-22 10-21 21-19 win helped Czechia draw level at 1-1 after Lin Chun-Yi had given Chinese Taipei the lead beating Jan Louda in 35 minutes.

“Right now there’s no words, it’s just crazy, it’s an amazing win,” said Kral.

“It’s very special. It’s the first Thomas Cup for Czechia, so it’s special for all of us. Getting the win against such a good player, it’s very nice.

“The side I started out in the third game was slower, so it was easier to control. And then it was hard to adapt, but I’m so glad I did it. At the end it was just about fighting at the net, and being I guess the more lucky one.”

Kral hails from a badminton-playing family – his brother Ondřej Kral plays men’s doubles – with the siblings introduced to the game by their father.

Ondrej walked in with Adam Mendrek for the third match against Lee Jhe-Huei/Yang Po-Hsuan; there was no upset this time, with the Czechs falling to a 21-16 21-16 loss.

Ondrej, older by a year, admitted they were surprised with his brother’s win.

“It was a big surprise for everyone in the hall and also for us. It gave us a bit more motivation and confidence to step on court, and maybe also a bit more pressure on our opponents.

“It’s a big thing for the family. Of course they were following the Thomas Cup and watching our matches.

“I’ve just played a few times doubles with him, actually. I was always in different age categories, so we didn’t play together.”

Jiri Kral returned for the final match of the tie, the men’s doubles with Tomas Svejda. This time there was no unusual result, with Lee Yang/Ye Hong Wei wrapping up the tie 4-1 for Chinese Taipei with a 21-11 21-11 result in 23 minutes.

Surprise for Alfian/Ardianto

The other big result of the day was the defeat of recent All England champions and world No.7 Fajar Alfian/Muhammad Rian Ardianto to world No.52 pair Peeratchai Sukphun/Pakkapon Teeraratsakul.

After Pakkapon’s twin brother Panitchaphon had given a good account of himself in the opening singles against Anthony Sinisuka Ginting, Sukphun and Pakkapon put up a high-intensity display to take down Alfian/Ardianto to level the tie for Thailand.

Saran Jamsri stretched Jonatan Christie in the second singles, going down in three games, but Indonesia were too strong for Thailand in the remaining matches, duly chalking up a 4-1 result.

“We did our homework back home in Thailand and our hard work paid off,” said Sukphun. “We are more motivated now and eager to play and win the next round. I realised the errors I made during our match with the Indians and we learned a lot and we didn’t repeat the same mistakes, so we are happy with the win.”

“This is encouraging us to aim for more and continue winning,” added his partner. “We did our homework by watching the video of the Indonesian pair and analysing with our coach. This is the result we got, so we are happy with that.”

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