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The Indian national badminton team competed in the 2011 Sudirman Cup held in Qingdao, China from 22 to 29 May 2011. It was the twelfth edition of the Sudirman Cup, the world mixed team badminton championship which takes place every two years. In this edition, 32 national badminton teams participated, and for the first time twelve teams competed in the elite group to battle for the title.
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The Indian team qualified for the elite group of the first time since the tournament started in 1989 and reached the quarterfinals, where it lost to seven times champion the Chinese team.
Tournament
Sudirman Cup World Mixed Team Badminton Championship is an international badminton tournament for mixed teams, consist of both male and female players. It held every two years and is named after Dick Sudirman, a former Indonesian badminton player and the founder of the Badminton Association of Indonesia.
2011 Sudirman Cup, officially known as Double Star 2011 Sudirman Cup BWF World Team Championships (for sponsorship reasons) was hosted by the Qingdao city of China. Qingdao was awarded the host right in 2009. Tournament was organised in the 12,500 sitting capacity Qingdao Sports Center Stadium.
Qualification
In Sudirman Cup, till 2009 for a team to qualify in the elite group (group 1), a group of those eligible eight teams that compete for the cup, team had to be promoted in this group and this promotion was decided on the basis of final standings of the last revision of the championships. In 2009 Sudirman Cup, India played in the group 3 and after beating three teams—Australia, Ukraine and Scotland—in group matches, and Bulgaria in play-offs, India topped its group and finished at the seventeenth spot in final standings of the tournament and promoted for the group 2 of the next championships (2011). In May 2009, Badminton World Federation changed the format of the tournament, according to which in spite of eight, top 12 teams would make an elite group, and that would be decided on the basis of their rankings, based on the aggregated points from the best players of the teams in the world rankings.
This changed format of the tournament gave India a chance to compete in the elite group, as aggregate sum of the Indian players world rankings points facilitated Indian team a tenth spot in seedings.
Team
Indian team consisted of thirteen members and team was accompanied by national coach Pullela Gopichand, former Indian badminton player Bhaskar Babu and OD Sharma as the chef-de-mission cum Manager.
Group matches
India placed in a sub-group 1C of group 1 (elite group). India lost its first match against Chinese Taipei with a points difference of 3–2. In second match, Indian team overpassed Thailand with 3–2 points difference.
Quarterfinals
India reached the quarterfinals after Chinese Taipei defeated Thailand 3–2 in the last sub-group C tie. Chinese Taipei had won both their ties in the three-nation group while India edged past Thailand to clinched its solitary win in the group stage. Thailand's defeat sealed the quarterfinal place for India for the first time since the inception of the Sudirman Cup in 1989.
In quarterfinals, India faced the seven time champions China. India lost to China with a point difference of 1–3. The only match won by India was of world number four Saina Nehwal's singles match against the world number three Wang Xin.