Saina crashes out, Sridhar advances to pre-QFs in Asian Badminton

Johor Bahru, Malaysia, Apr 12 (UNI) Saina Nehwal crashed out of the Yonex-Sunrise Asian Badminton Championship with a 17-21, 21-19, 14-21 second round loss to third seed Jiang Yanjiao of China in women's singles competition here today.

World number 23 Saina was on an even keel after winning the second game, but the Indian lost out to the guiles of her formidable Chinese opponent, ranked 10th in the world, who walked away with the honours by winning the decider.

In another women's singles second round match, Trupti Murgunde gave a scare to fifth seeded Malaysian Wong Mew Choo before losing 20-22, 14-21.

Anup Sridhar, however, brought cheers to Indians on an otherwise disappointing day by advancing to the pre-quarterfinals of men's singles with a 23-21, 21-14 victory over Poompat Sapkulchananart of Thailand in the second round.

Sridhar, who reached the semi-finals of the German Open Grand Prix last month, will play Hsieh Yu Hsing of Taipei for a place in the last eight.

Sridhar had earlier beaten Bangladesh's Mostafa Jabed Mohammed 21-3, 21-9 in the opening round.

His compatriots Ravinder Singh and Anand Pawar were, however, eliminated from the tournament. While Ravinder lost to Chan Yan Kit of Hong Kong 10-21, 14-21 Pawar succumbed to Chen Hong of China 11-21, 13-21 in their second round singles.

In men's doubles opening round, Akshay Dewalkar and Jishnu Sanyal got the better of Duong Bao Duc and Nguyen Hoang Nam of Vietnam 21-16, 21-12 while Thomas Sanave and Rupesh Kumar duo lost to Taipei pair of Lee Sheng Mu and Fang Chieh Min 15-21, 18-21. Dewalkar and Sanyal will now meet Hong Kong pair of Njoto Alberus Susanto and Wiratama Yohan Hadikusumo, who did short work of Syed Ebrahim Jaffar and Syed Ebrahim Hamid of Bahrain 21-6, 21-11.

In women's doubles, BR Meenakshi and Aparna Balan were beaten by Ma Jin and Wang Xiaoli of China 10-21, 15-21.

In mixed doubles also, Indian challenge ended with V Diju and Aparna Balan lost to Xu Chen and Zhao Tingting of China 17-21, 16-21. They had earlier beaten Koreans Cho Gun Woo and Hong Soo Jung 21-7, 21-12.

UNI