Sridhar goes down fighting to Lin Dan in QF

Kuala Lumpur, Aug 17 (UNI) Anup Sridhar gave a big scare to defending champion and world number one Lin Dan of China by threatening to take the first game before losing 20-22, 9-21 in the quarter-final of the 16th World badminton Championship here today.

The Indian could not convert a game point in the first game and paid the prize to lose the match in 38 minutes.

The world number 41 Indian, who had beaten eighth seed and reigning Olympic champion Taufik Hidayat of Indonesia and 13th seed Mohammad Hafiz Hashim of Malaysia en-route to the quarter-final, began on a positive note and surged ahead 2-0 only to be caught up by Dan who took six straight points to go 6-2 ahead.

Sridhar fought back and the two were locked 10-10, 11-11 and 12-12 midway in the first game. The Indian again came back from 12-14 down to make it 14-14.

From then onwards, none of the two players could go ahead by more than one point and the score read 15-15, 16-16, 17-17, 18-18 and 19-19. Sridhar made it 20-19 to set up the game point.

But, the much experienced and the fancied Chinese made it 20-20 and take it to deuce and then went on to win two consecutive points to win the first game 22-20.

The first game loss seemed to have sapped Sridhar's energy and he was never in the game in the second game.

Dan raced away to 7-1 and the gap widened to 11-2 midway in the second game and took four straight points from 17-9 to win it 21-9 and the match.

Sridhar has had a fruitful season so far with semi-final appearances in German Open in March and Asian Championship in April and his quarter-final appearance here with upset victories over Hidayat and Hashim should push his rankings higher from current 41st when the chart is issued on Monday.

With Sridhar's exit, Indian challenge in the championship has ended. Earlier yesterday, Saina Nehwal had suffered a straight set defeat at the hands of fourth seed Pi Hongyan of France in women's singles.

UNI