Saina loses opener, Arvind Bhat lone Indian among men

Kuching, June 15 (UNI) Saina Nehwal's campaign was cut short in the very first round while Arvind Bhat remained the lone survivor as it turned out to be a day of disaster for the Indian shuttlers in the Malaysian Open Badminton Tournament here.

Saina, winner of the Philippines Open, looked her dominating self against her Dutch rival Jie Yao as she won the first game. That, however, proved a false dawn as the Indian soon ran out of steam and Yao came from behind to walk away with a 9-21, 21-19, 21-11 win.

Saina, partnering Ruth Misha, also lost her first round match in women's doubles against the Malaysian duo of Chiou Hwee Haw and Anita Raj who won 21-13, 21-19.

Aditi Mutatkar and Sayali Gokhale also bit dust as they went down 13-21, 10-21 to the Sabrina Sook Ching Chong-Yin Loo Lim pair.

In the men's singles, Arvind Bhat quelled a late challenge from Kenneth Jonassen to beat the shuttler from Denmark 21-16, 23-21 and move into the last 16 stage where he meets Germany's Roman Spitko.

National champion Anup Sridhar fought a grim second round war against Chong Wei Lee and forced the decider after conceding the first game. But in the end, it was the Malaysian who had the last laugh as he went on to complete a 21-12, 17-21, 21-13 win against Sridhar.

Chetan Anand, on the other hand, proved no match for Briton Andrew Smith who looked at ease during his 21-14, 21-10 win against the Indian.

It was the same story with Rohan Castelino who was beaten 21-15, 21-12 by Yan Kit Chan of Hong Kong.

Apart from Bhat's win, the only other saving grace was Thomas Sanave and Rupesh Kumar's 21-12, 21-19 win against the German pair of Michael Fuchs and Roman Spitko in the first round of the men's doubles.

The Indians take on the Malaysian pair of Ying Jin Goh and Mohd Razif Abdul Rahman in the next round.

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