Sridhar fails to qualify for All England main round

Birmingham, Mar 7 (UNI) India's Anup Sridhar failed to qualify for the main round of All England badminton championship as he lost to Sato Shoji of Japan in a qualifying round final 21-8, 17-21, 16-21 here.

The world number 49 Indian reached the semi-finals of the German Open Grand Prix last week but could not reproduce his impressive form here and missed out the chance to compete the best shuttlers in the world in the presigious tournament.

He had earlier beaten Jens-Kristian Leth of Denmark 21-6, 21-19 and Scott Evans of Ireland 22-20, 21-16 before losing to Sato who booked one of the four qualifying berths on offer in men's singles competition.

Three of Sridhar's compatriots -- P Kashyap, Anand Pawar and Nikhil Kanetkar -- also lost their qualifying round matches.

Kashyap was beaten 15-21, 12-21 by Denmark's Kasper Odeum while Pawar went down to Nathan Rice of England and Kanetkar lost to Odeum in the opening matches.

In the men's doubles also, Rupesh Kumar and Thomas Sanave lost a close fight to Peter Buur Steffensen and Rasmus Mangor Andersen of Denmark 21-17, 22-24, 24-26.

Meanwhile, top Indian man shuttler Chatan Anand was given a tough opening round main draw as he faces third seed Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia while in women's singles Saina Nehwal will have a relatively easier match against qualifier Anita Raj Kaur of Malaysia.

UNI