Saina, Chetan crash out in singles of World Championship

Madrid, Sep 19 (UNI) Indian shuttlers made an early exit from the World Championship with both Chetan Anand and Saina Nehwal suffering first round defeats in the men and women's singles events respectively.

Chetan lost to world number five South Korean Lee Hyun Il 21-18, 18-21,21-10, while Saina was beaten 21-10, 21-16 by China's Jiang Yanjiao.

Meanwhile, Rupesh Kumar and Thomas Sanave kept the Indian hopes ailve by reaching the second round in doubles with a facile 21-10, 21-12 win against the Russian duo of Vladimir Malkov and Konstantin Khlestov.

The Indian duo will now take on the Albertus Susanto Njoto-Yohan Hadikusumo Wiratama pair from Hong Kong in their second round outing.

In mixed doubles, the SAF Games Gold medallist pair of Jwala Gutta and V Diju will meet the Malaysian pair of Teik Chai Gan and Chew Yen Fong in the first round later today.

In women's doubles, Shruti Kurian and Jwala Gutta, after a bye in the first round, got a walkover in the second to move into the last 16 stage after the Korean pair of Hyo Jung Lee and Kyung Won Lee pulled out.

The Indians will now meet either the Japanese pair of Kumiko Ogura and Reiko Shiota or the Malaysian duo of Chew Yen Fong and Phui Leng See in their next match.

The other Indian duo of BR Meenakshi and Trupti Murgunde are also into the second round after beating the Canadian pair of Amelie Felx and Florence Lavoi 21-12, 14-21, 22-20 in the first round yesterday.

In men's singles, wristy Chetan tried every trick in his book and never conceded an inch without fight. But his Korean rival, fresh from his semifinal appearance in the Hong Kong Open, handled it very well and won the first game to go one up.

Chetan, who won the SAF Games gold in Colombo last month, still did not give up and turned the tables on the world number five player and snatched the game to draw parity.

Jolted out of confidence, the semifinalist of the Korean Open, went all out in the third game and Chetan could not do much as his rival clinched the game and the match with his attacking brand of play even though he had to toil for 53 minutes in the middle to get the better of the gritty Indian, who is ranked 25th.

Saina, however, could not pose a serious threat to her Chinese opponent and lost in straight games. Winner of the Philipines Open, Saina did not have enough weapons in her arsenal to upstage the world number 13 and the Chinese shuttler hardly broke a sweat as she downed her Indian opponent.

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