Singapore Open: Kashyap, Gurusaidutt, Srikanth disappoint

Parupalli Kashyap of India (Getty Images)

India’s Parupalli Kashyap waged a grim battle before going down to Japan’s world number 16 Takuma Ueda in three games 18-21, 22-20, 21-15 in the first round of the Singapore Super Series badminton tournament.

The country’s highest ranked men’s singles player made the right noises in the opening game and kept winning the crucial points to stay ahead of Takuma.

The world number ten logged four points on the trot to consolidate his position. He defied some resistance from the Japanese to bag the opening game at 21-18.

The second game was a battle of attrition. Both players kept breathing down each other’s neck even as the game went into deuce. Kashyap saved two game points but Takuma made it count for the third time winning it at 22-20.

The sting went out of Kashyap’s game in the decider.

Takuma garnered a healthy lead early and maintained it giving the Indian no leeway to fight back, pocketing the second game at 21-15, in a contest that lasted an hour and eleven minutes.

This was Kashyap’s first loss at the hands of Takuma. The Indian had beaten the Japanese twice in their previous meetings – first at the 2009 Japan Open and later in the 2013 Maybank Malaysian Open.

Indian badminton’s latest big thing – K Srikanth – was shown the door by sixth seed and world number 9 Tien Minh Nguyen of Vietnam in three games 19-21, 21-16, 21-12 0-0.

Srikanth, who grabbed the eyeballs when he won the Thailand Open, did well to win the opening game before running out of steam in the next two games.

RMV Gurusaidutt also bowed out in the first round to Malaysia’s world number 12 Wei Feng Chong in three games 15-21, 21-18, 21-9 12 . The Indian has never beaten the Malaysian in three meetings so far.

In fact, the Indian men’s shuttlers put a listless showing in the first round.

38^th ranked Anand Pawar lost to top-seed Du Pengyu of China 16-21, 13-21 in the opening round.

25^th ranked Ajay Jayaram fought hard before caving in to fourth seed Kenichi Tago of Japan 19-21, 21-18, 17-21.

42^nd ranked Sourabh Varma also went down to Hong Kong’s world number 14 Wing Ki Wong in straight games 17-21, 17-21.

However, the only bright spark for Indian men was the performance of 61^st ranked B Sai Praneeth, who caused the biggest upset of the Singapore Open Super Series event, when he outclassed second seed and world number 4 Yun Hu in straight games 21-9, 21-10.

India’s Saina Nehwal is the lone Indian survivor in the women’s singles category. Earlier, PC Thulasi and Arundhati Panthawane lost in their first round matches.