Sridhar bows out in quarter-final, Indian campaign ends

Bangkok, July 6 (UNI) Anup Sridhar lost to tenth seed Ng Wei of Hong Kong 21-19, 18-21, 4-21 in the quarter-finals to bow out of the Thailand Open badminton tournament here today.

The Indian won the first game but failed to match his higher-ranked opponent's experience and went on to lose the next two games and concede the match in 56 minutes.

The second game was a close one but Sridhar was simply outclassed by his opponent in the decider.

The world number 48 Indian had earlier beaten Tien Minh Nguyen of Vietnam 21-14, 21-14 in the third round.

With Sridhar's ouster, the Indian campaign ended in the 120,000 dollar Grand Prix Gold event.

National champion Chetan Anand could only reach second round where he lost to Ireland's Scott Evans 15-21, 16-21 while P Kashyap lost to Kenn Lim of Malaysia in the opening round.

In the women's singles, Trupti Murgunde reached upto second round, only to lose to Juliana Schenk of Germany.

But, the shocker was the loss of India's hope Saina Nehwal in the first round to Xing Aiying of Singapore 13-21, 16-21.

The men's and women's doubles pairs also failed to get past the opening round.

While men's pair of Rupesh Kumar and Sanave Thomas went down fighting to Phattapol Ngensrisuk and Nitipong Saengsila of Thailand 18-21, 21-18, 25-23, Jwala Gutta and Shruti Kurian lost to eighth seeded Thai duo of Duang Anong Aroonkesorn and Kunchala Voravichitcahikul 17-21, 14-21 in women's doubles.

UNI