Indonesia passed their last group test against India with flying colours, and were rewarded with the 3-4 seeding for the quarterfinals, where they face Korea.

Defending champions India, on the other hand, were left to rue some of their missed chances in what was a close tie; the consequence was a faceoff against top seeds China.

In Group B, Japan kept their all-win record with an impressive whitewash over strong Chinese Taipei; the resultant 3-4 seeding saw them draw Malaysia in the quarterfinals, while Chinese Taipei face second seeds Denmark.

The India-Indonesia group clash, a repeat of the last final that India won, ended with Indonesia taking it 4-1, but it could have gone either way, for three of the matches hung by a thread. The most extraordinary of these was the first doubles, in which Satwiksairaj Rankireddy/Chirag Shetty saved six match points in the second game and four in the second against Muhammad Shohibul Fikri/Bagas Maulana.

“I feel happy with the win; it was nervous out there,” said Fikri. “It wasn’t about luck, we had to be tough and confident on court. We lost many match points, but our coach didn’t scold us, he told us it was okay.”

Jonatan Christie, enjoying the best phase of his career, was tested by Lakshya Sen but was the steadier of the two at the home stretch of a 75-minute battle.

“When you play a major tournament, it’s all about mentality, it’s all about fighting spirit,” said Christie. “Today it was very tough against India once again. Last edition we lost 3-0, it was very tough. We had motivation to do well.

“We just went all out on every point. I told my teammates, whatever the result, you give whatever you have.”

Only the second doubles, in which India fielded a scratch pair, was comfortably Indonesia’s, but they’d had to save game point.

Kidambi Srikanth had two match points against Chico Aura Dwi Wardoyo but the Indonesian eluded his grasp to take his team home 4-1.

Japan Keep Clean Slate

Japan were expected to have trouble against Chinese Taipei, but the 2014 champions held firm. Chinese Taipei’s experiment fielding two scratch pairs – Wang Chi-Lin with Yang Po-Hsuan and Lee Yang with Ye Hong Wei – didn’t quite pay off.

Kenta Nishimoto set up the win beating Chou Tien Chen, and Kento Momota wrapped it up against a stubborn Lee Chia Hao.

→ Results

WHAT THEY SAID:

“Someone like Ginting, he’s going to come in hard especially in the first game and you just have to hang in there. He was really quick in the start of the game and he’s good in these kind of conditions. I had to trust my game and believe it’s going to work. I always have an edge when it comes to the third game.” – Prannoy

“Lakshya’s defence, agility and stamina are very good. It’s not easy to play him. It’s always three games against him. We both give whatever we have and we push each other.” – Christie

“Overall it was a very good match. When I was down I thought I needed to let go and show my attitude. When we were down we got so many easy points. I thought we had made it tough for ourselves. The whole game was based on serve-receiving. It was a good learning for us, that even when we were down we could pull it off.” – Rankireddy