Chetan, Anup move into quarters; Saina out of doubles

Melbourne, Mar 23 (UNI) Playing a power packed attacking game, Anup Sridhar upset fifth seed Geoffrey Bellingham of New Zealand, while fourth seed Chetan Anand crushed his rival in straight games to sail into the quarter finals of the Men's individual Badminton event of the Commonwealth Games here today.

In the women's doubles Indians had a mixed luck. While Jwala Gutta and Shruti Kurian moved into the last eight, Saina Nehwal and Trupti Murgunde failed to cross the pre-quarter final hurdle.

The men's doubles pair of Chetan Anand and Valiyaveetil Diju also fell by the way side, losing to the Singaporean duo of Ronald Susilo and Kurniawan Hendri Saputra in straight games.

On the other hand, Sridhar never relaxed his grip over the match against fifth seed Kiwi, which lasted 27 minutes and did not allow Bellingham to settle down throughout.

The Indian displayed his armoury of powerful strokes well and his telling samshes caught his opponent on the wrong foot.

Time and again Bellingham was left stranded as Sridhar's shots whizzed past him. After conceding the first game at 10, the Kiwi shuttler virtually gave away the match and the Indian had no problem in putting it across his rival in 14 minutes.

Bellingham not only committed unforced errors but also gave away many negative points. Sridhar was very strong with his returns and his forehands rattled the fifth seed who found it hard to hit back.

The two long rallies in the match lasted for 32 and 31 seconds and both ended in Indians favour and the Indian eventually sealed the match 21-10, 21-10.

In the other men's sngles match, world number 21 Chetan Anand gave a clinical display as he accounted for Mauritian Stephen Beeharry in 18 minutes.

Chetan made his rival run around the court as he dictated the proceedings from the baseline. Beeharry was illequipped to face his formidable rival in all aspects of the game.

The Indian gave no chance to his rival as he won the first game in 11 minutes and second in seven minutes to emerge winner with a 21-14, 21-6 score.

In the women's doubles, Jwala Gutta and Shruti Kurian had an easy outing as they humbled the South African duo of Michelle Edwards and Lee Kerry Harrington in a one sided contest. The Indians combined well to clinch the match 21-8, 21-4 in just 12 minutes .

However, luck deserted Saina Nehwal and Trupti Murgunde. The Indian pair started promisingly against England's Kate Ella Tripp and Joanne Nicholas, winning the first game easily in eight minutes, but the English pair came back strongly in the second, in which Indians lost their concentration and focus.

Nicholas and Trippe captalised on the negative points, which the Indians conceded, and then smashed their way to win the game in 10 minutes and draw parity.

It was a cracker of a decider as the the two pairs battled it out for in the third game. The Indians, however, faltered and committed unforced errors at crucial stages to lose the game and the match.

saina and Trupti lost 21-7, 12-21, 18-21 in the gruelling 30 minute contest.

The men's doubles pair of Anand and Diju faltered in their men's doubles contest and failed to match the power play of their rivals Ronal Susilo and Kurniawan Saputra and went down 14-21, 8-21 in 18 minutes.

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