Saina Nehwal, Sayali Gokhale record upset wins in Philippine Open

New Delhi, May 25 (UNI) Saina Nehwal and Sayali Gokhale caused major flutters pulling off stunning victories against higher ranked Sutheaswari Mudukasan of Malaysia and Anna Rice of Canada in the womens' draw, as the Indians got off to a flying start on the opening day of the Philippine Open Championship.

Chetan Anand, Arvind Bhat, Anup Sridhar, Anand Pawar and P Kashyap also began the men's campaign on a winning note, sailing into the second round at Pasig City last evening.

Ranked 86th in the world, Saina enacted a giant killing act to shock the 31st ranked Mudukasan 21-16 21-19 in just 28 minutes.

Sixteen-year-old Saina will face Japan's Imai Sachiyo in the second round.

Nineteen-year-old Sayali followed suit to stun Anna, world number 29 and fifth seed in the tournament, 16-21 22-20 21-16 in a 63-minute thriller. Gokhale next meets Japan's Ai Goto in the round of 16.

However, Missha Ruth and Aditi Mutatkar crashed out of the tournament with Ruth losing to Anita Raj Kaur of Malaysia 21-15, 21-14, while Mutatkar went down to Wong Pei Xian Julia of Malaysia 21-13, 21-11.

In the men's singles, world number 24 Chetan Anand defeated lowly Jun Takemura of Japan 21-19 21-13 in just 25 minutes to meet Ismail Saman in the round of 32.

P Kashyap and Arvind Bhatt also had easy outings against their opponents. Kashyap took 20 minutes to beat Mailon Alfredo of Philippines 21-13, 21-12, while Bhatt defeated Pei Wei Chung of Malaysia 22-20, 21-17 in 34 minutes.

Kashyap will meet Kuan beng Hong of Malaysia while Bhatt will play local challenger Junio Jamie in the second round.

However, national champion Anup Sridhar and Anand Pawar had to sweat out hard to chalk out come-from-behind wins against local players. While Sridhar needed 45 minutes to get past Rodal Bartolome 14-21, 21-8, 22-20, Pawar took a bit longer to fashion a 23-25, 21-14, 21-8 win against Arolas Amahit Jr in 50 minutes.

Sridhar will now meet Lee Yen Hui Kendrick of Singapore, while Pawar will take on Ponsana Boonsak of Thailand in the next round.

It was only Rohan Castelino who lost among Indian men, going down without much fight to Thai Poompat Sapkulchananart 21-5, 21-14 in 24 minutes.

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