Barring Anand Pawar, India’s shuttlers sank without any trace in the very first round of the singles main draw in the Philippines Open in Manila on Wednesday.
While five players bowed out of the men’s competition, the most upsetting result was defending champion Saina Nehwal’s loss to a Chinese qualifier in the women’s draw. The Hyderabad girl suffered a 21-15, 21-13 loss to Jhingjing Zhu.
In the men’s singles, Pawar scored a convincing 21-8, 21-13 win over Juergen Koch of Austria. Pawar, in second round,  will meet top seed Chen Hong of China, who beat Ajay Jayaram 21-19, 21-17.
National champion Chetan Anand lost to Kay Bin Yeoh of Malaysia 21-10, 21-15 while Anup Sridhar went down to Indonesia’s Tommy Sugiarto 21-19, 21-14. Nikhil Kanetkar suffered a 21-13, 21-14 loss to Wei Ng of Hong Kong and P Kashyap went down to Indonesia’s Sony Dwi Kuncoro 21-18, 21-12.
In mixed doubles, V Diju and Aparna Balan entered second round with a 14-21, 21-18, 21-17 win over Shao Chieh Cheng and Chia Hsin Tsai of Chinese Taipei.