India will face Chinese Taipei in the quarterfinals of Thomas Cup, as per the draw held by the Badminton World Federation in Horsens, Denmark, on Thursday.
India finished second behind defending champion China in Group A while Chinese Taipei topped Group C.
In the other last-eight fixtures, China will take on Malaysia, Thailand will be up against host Denmark while Japan will meet France.
India, the 2022 champion, started its campaign with a 4-1 victory over Canada before thrashing Australia 5-0 but it went down 2-3 to China in its last group-stage encounter.
Ayush Shetty, fresh off his runner-up finish at the Badminton Asia Championships, is in fine form and has won all three singles. However, India’s top singles player Lakshya Sen has suffered defeat twice – against Victor Lai (Canada) and Li Shi Feng (China). The doubles duo of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty will also enter the knockout stage after a heartbreaking 13-21, 21-13, 24-26 loss to China’s Liang Wei Keng and Wang Chang.
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While the current Indian team has experienced shuttlers in Kidambi Srikanth and H. S. Prannoy, members of the squad which achieved a historic triumph four years ago, major responsibility will be on Lakshya, Ayush and Satwik-Chirag to take the team past a tough opponent in Chinese Taipei in the quarterfinals on Friday.
The Chinese Taipei squad features World No. 6 Chou Tien Chen, World No. 8 Lin Chun-Yi and World No. 21 Chi Yu Jen as its top three singles players. Chun-Yi had beaten Lakshya in last month’s All England Open final.
Chinese Taipei also has Chia Hao Lee, the 2025 All England Open runner-up, as another option in singles. It’s first-choice doubles pair is Chiu Hsiang Chieh and Wang Chi-lin while the second duo is Liu Kuang Heng and Yang Po Han.
In the group stage, Chinese Taipei began with a 5-0 win over Sweden. It squandered a 2-0 lead and lost to Korea. However, it not avoided elimination but ended up topping its group after beating Denmark 3-2 in its last tie in which Chi Yu Jen saved five match points to beat Ditlev Jaeger Holm 21-11, 9-11, 27-25 in the deciding singles.
Published on Apr 30, 2026
