New Delhi: Led by ace shuttler P Kashyap, the Indian men's team made a winning start to their campaign by defeating Singapore 3-2 in the first rubber of the Thomas Cup Asia Zone preliminaries at Macau on Monday.
World number 29 Kashyap started the proceedings for India as he sent packing Zi Liang Derek Wong 21-16, 21-19 in a match that lasted for 40 minutes.
The experienced doubles pair of Rupesh Kumar and Sanave Thomas then crushed Zhao Jiang Terry Yeo and Liu Yi 21-8, 21-15 in a 29-minute match to give India a 2-0 lead.
Rising shuttler and national champion Sourabh Varma then took the court but the Indian could not get past Yong Zhao Ashton as he lost 20-22, 16-21.
However, Akshay Dewalkar and Pranav Chopra ensured that there were no further hiccups and joined hands to beat Chayut Triyachart and H C Jeffrey Wong 21-19, 21-16 in just 26 minutes to make it 3-1 for India.
World number 71 Anand Pawar was then handed the onus to tame Chao Huang in the third singles but went down 14-21, 21-6, 18-21 to the Singaporean in a closely fought tussle.
India will next take on hosts Macau on Tuesday. The Indian men's team had reached the knock-out stage in the last edition in 2010.
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