Chetan, Kanetkar crash out, Indian challenge ends in Denmark Open

New Delhi, Nov 3 (UNI) Indian hopes were dashed in the Denmark Open badminton championship as Chetan Anand and Nikhil Kanetkar went down tamely to higher ranked rivals in the pre-quarterfinals here.

Chetan, ranked 30th in the world, lost to world number six Chen Hong of China 16-21, 15-21 while Kanetkar (ranked 86) was also no match to world number 19 Sairul Amar Ayob, losing 9-21 11-21 to the Malaysian to end Indian challenge in the 170000 dollar five star tournament.

Chetan had earlier beaten Erwin Kehlhoffner of France and Peter Mikkelsen of Denmark en-route to the pre-quarters while Kanetkar had run past Roman Spitko of Germany and world number 29 Kasper Oedum of Denmark.

Among other Indians, Anup Shridhar had lost to Dicky Palyama of the Netherlands 9-21, 15-21 in the second round while P Kashyap and Anand Pawar were beaten by Sairul Amar in the first and second rounds respectively.

Aditi Mutatkar, the lone Indian entry in the women's singles, got a bye in the first round but lost to world number seven Lu Lan of China 13-21, 14-21 in the second round, according to information here today.

In the women's doubles, Jwala Gutta and Shruti Kurien went down to Jo Novita and Greysia Polli of Indonesia 18-21, 14-21 in the second round after beating Hayley Connor and Rachel Howard of England 18-21, 22-20, 21-16 in the first round.

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