Sridhar's fairytale run in German Open ends

Mulheim an der Ruhr, Mar 5 (UNI) Anup Sridhar's fairytale run in the German Open Grand Prix badminton tournament ended at the semi-finals as he lost to top seed and world number one Lin Dan of China 14-21, 12-21 here.

The world number 49 Indian was no match to the formidable Chinese opponent's better movement on the court and powerful smashes and lost the tie in 27 minutes on Saturday.

Dan lifted his third crown in an anti-climax of sorts as second seed and compatriot Yu Chen withdrew from the final due to an injury. Dan had won the title in 2004 and 2005.

Sridhar though had the satisfaction of having achieved his best performance in any international tournament, his earlier best being at the Singapore Open in June 2006 where he reached the quarter-finals.

In this tournament, he had scored upset wins over three higher-ranked players en route to the last four after scraping past qualifier Andreas Adityawarman of Indonesia in the first round.

He first shocked eighth seed Bjoern Joppien of Germany in the second round and then toppled 15th seed Kaspar Oedum of Denmark in the pre-quarters before upsetting 11th seed Korean Sung Hwan in the round of eight.

In men's doubles, Rupesh Kumar and Thomas Sanave lost to top seeds Jae Sung Jung and Yong Dae Lee of Korea 9-21, 15-21 in the quater-finals.

UNI