India Open: Anupama, Ashwini-Tanisha shine on an otherwise gloomy day

Delhi: Indian badminton fans endured a tough day at the India Open as the home favourites Lakshya Sen and HS Prannoy lost disappointingly on Wednesday at the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium, New Delhi.

Youngster Priyanshu Rajawat and Malvika Bandsod also lost their respective games in the first round.

India's only bright spot was youngster Anupama Upadhyay who defeated compatriot Rakshita Sree and Ashwini Ponnappa and Tanisha Crasto defeated Kavya Gupta/Radhika Sharma in women's doubles.

HS Prannoy and Lakshya falter in the first round

Top Indian male shuttlers HS Prannoy and Lakshya Sen lost their respective games in the first round much to the disappointment of the Indian fans.

While Prannoy fought for more than an hour against Su Li Yang of Chinese Taipei, Lakshya exited in 37 minutes against Lin Chun-Yi of Chinese Taipei.

Prannoy started well against Su and won the first game 21-16 much to the delight of the Indian crowd. However, Su came back in the second game and won 21-18 despite Prannoy keeping him on his toes.

In the final game, Prannoy looked tired and conceded the game 12-21 to Su to face an early round exit.

Lakshya Sen arrived on the court with much fanfare but had a very disappointing start against Lin Chun-Yi.

Lin was exploiting the spaces left by Lakshya's movement and attacked continuously to tire out Lakshya in the first game. Lakshya lost the first game 15-21.

The second game was more disappointing as Lakshya failed to put up any fight and Lin ran away with the match (21-15, 21-10) winning in straight games.

Anupama, Ashwini-Tanisha only shining stars

India's only bright spot on the day was wins secured by Anupama Upadhyaya in the women's singles and Ashwini-Tanisha in the women's doubles.

The all-Indian clash between Gopichand academy-mates Anupama and Rakshita Sree Santosh Ramraj turned out to be a battle of wits between two good friends with experience triumphing the youth.

Former National champion Anupama engaged Rakshita in long rallies, not giving her many chances to use the big smash to win 21-17, 21-18 in 43 minutes to advance to the second round.

Anupama will now face Japanese sixth seed Tomaka Miyazaki, who recovered from the second-game slump to beat Thailand’s Pornpicha Choeikeewong 21-7, 22-24, 21-9 in the first round.

“This is my first time playing in India Open Super 750 level. Last year, I was just watching all of them play. Before this I had played in the Super 500 but the standard at this level is different. Last year, I played my first 750 in China and last week also played Malaysia Super 1000. These performances help me believe that I can be their equal. I have the speed and compatibility against the top players,” said Anupama.

Ashwini and Tanisha defeated compatriots Kavya Gupta and Radhika Sharma 21-11, 21-12 with much ease.

Priyanshu, Malvika endure tough losses

Indian youngsters Priyanshu Rajawat and Malvika Bansod suffered tough losses against much higher-ranked opponents.

Malvika, who had gone down in a straight game against Han last week in Malaysia, started strong in the opening game and though the Chinese took control of the game in the later stage, kept her nerves and forced errors to save two game points and pocket the first game.

It looked like she could do an encore in the second after winning eight the nine points from 7-14 but a couple of errors derailed her effort and the experienced Han tightened the noose in the decider.

In the men’s singles match, Rajawat displayed delectable stroke play and employed the big jump smashes to keep pace with Naroaka.

The Japanese were made to work hard for every point and the error the Indian forced the sixth seed to commit at match point in the second game after a long rally showed that he was prepared for the scrap. But once again it was the experience of Naraoka that counted in the final analysis.