India crashes out of Yonex Australian Badminton tournament

UTTAM MUKHERJEE reports from the second round of the men’s singles at the Australian Open Grand Prix Gold
 

 
Update
India crashes out of Yonex Australian Badminton tournament
 
Last night saw the fall of the last Indian hope. Gurusaidutt went down fighting to the higher seeded Malaysian player, Chong Wei Lee. The scores were 21-10 18-21 21-15. After GurusaiDutt started off to a roaring start taking a 4-0 lead, Lee came back and finished the first game quite easily. Gurusaidatt put a better fight at the second and last games, but that was not enough. The difference between the two was in the lethal finishes, Gurusaidutt could not come up with enough winners. Earlier in the afternoon another Indian seed, Anand Pawar, went down in straight sets to another Malyasian, Wei Fen Chong at 21-19 and 21-15.
 
Past news:
Indian shuttlers Jayaram and Gurusaidutt advance in Australian Open Badminton
Indian shuttlers Ajay Jayaram, R.M.V. Gurusaidutt and Anand Pawar, on Tuesday made their way through to the second round of the men’s singles at the Australian Open Grand Prix Gold being held at the Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre.
However, it was the end of the road for two veterans, also former Indian national champions, Chetan Anand and Arvind Bhat. Top seed Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia got rid of Bhat with ease (21-10, 21-18) in 31 minutes while Indonesia’s Riyanto Subagja beat Chetan Anand 21-14, 21-16 in 25 minutes.
Mumbai boy Jayaram, seeded ninth, took less than an hour to beat unseeded Malaysian Kwong Beng Chan 21-11, 21-14 in their first ever encounter while city-mate and 14th seed Pawar had to undergo a marathon battle against Arif Ramadhan of Indonesia to win in the decider. Pawar won 19-21, 21-11, 21-13 in 59 minutes, also their first ever match. Jayaram and Pawar will next face South Korea’s Dong Keun Lee and Malaysian Zulfadli Zulkiffli, respectively, in the next round.
Rising shuttler R.M.V. Gurusaidutt, seeded 11th, hardly took quarter of an hour to get past local boy Hu-Wen Chew 21-4, 21-7 also in their first ever meet. He also won against Suppanyu Avihingsanon of Thailand in Round 2. Although technically superior to his Thai opponent, Gurusaidutt had to dig deep to justify his eleventh seeding. After winning the first game and leading close to the end of the second, he unexpectedly gave it away and then found himself seven points adrift in the third game. Gurusaidutt had just enough time to reel in their scores and fall over the finish line 21-14, 18-21, 21-19.
In the women’s singles action, Japanese Yui Hashimoto will take on India’s Sarada Jasti in their first ever meeting.
South Asian links in the Aussie team
On the first day, the Australian qualifying men’s singles eighth seed, Ashwant Gobinathan, lost his opening match against Xue Song of China.
The ever popular Renuga Veeran and Ross Smith roused the lunchtime crowds when they secured their first set of mixed doubles against defending champions, Chen Hung Ling of Chinese Taipei, with his new partner Wu Ti Jung, 22-20. A frustrating game and patchy performance by the Australians at the change of ends let the tourists back into the match 10-21. Veeran and Smith caught up to 12-12 in the decider, but lost the lead again which they never regained, concluding 17-21.