Indians endure dismal day

Indians endured a disppointing opening day with Parupalli Kashyap and K Srikanth crashing out in the opening round of the All England Championships here on Wednesday.

Kashyap won the opening game in his encounter against Kenichi Tago but the Japanese fifth seed fought back to seal a hard-fought 14-21, 21-19, 21-17 victory in an hour and 15 minutes.

Srikanth, however, hardly offered any fight, going down tamely 11-21, 15-21 to Kento Momota of Japan.

The story was the same in mixed doubles too as Ashwini Ponnappa and Tarun Kona lost 13-21, 16-21 to the fourth-seeded pair of Joachim Fisher Nielsen and Christina Pedersen.

India’s two other singles players, Saina Nehwal and PV Sindhu, were due to take court on late Wednesday evening.

Earlier, men’s singles player Anand Pawar and women’s doubles pair of Jwala Gutta and Ashwini could not cross the first hurdle as all Indians playing in the qualifying round on Tuesday failed to enter the main draw.

Seeded No 1 in the qualifiers, Anand squandered a one-game advantage to go down fighting against Indonesia’s Andre Kurniawan Tedjono 21-18, 13-21, 19-21 in an hour and eight minutes.

Commonwealth Games gold-medallist pair of Jwala and Ashwini also failed to tame the Chinese combo of Jin Ma and Yuanting Tang as they went down 21-14, 15-21, 17-21 in a match that lasted 54 minutes.

Among others, Saili Rane and mixed doubles pair of Abhishek Ahlawat and Kristi Das also crashed out of the qualification round.

Saili went down fighting to Ireland’s Chloe Magee 21-23, 20-22 in a women’s singles qualifying match which lasted for 47 minutes.

Abhishek and Kristi, on the other hand, were sent packing in just 14 minutes by Indonesian combo of Gideon Markus Fernaldi and Rizki Amelia Pradipta in a mixed doubles event.

First round results (only matches involving Indians): Men’s singles: Kento Momoto bt K Srikanth 21-11, 21-15; Kenichi Tago bt Parupalli Kashyap 14-21, 21-19, 21-17.

Mixed doubles: Joachim Fischer Nielsen/ Christinna Pedersen bt Tarun Kona/ Ashwini Ponappa 21-13, 21-16.