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The Indian Men’s Doubles pairing of Manu Attri and Sumeeth Reddy were knocked out of the Badminton World Championships after losing 21-9 21-7 to the China’s Cai Yun and Lu Kai in the opening round.
The Indian pair found themselves on the back foot early on, trailing 8-2 in the opening game and then trailed by a whopping nine points at 11-2 at the interval mark. The break did have any effect in the play of their Chinese opponents as they dominated proceedings, not allowing the Indian pair to make any kind of comeback into the match and eventually succumbed 21-9 in the first game.
The second game didn't begin in the best of fashions for Attri and Reddy as the Chinese pair once again began well, taking an early 5-2 lead and then stretched it to 11-3 at the break.The same tale continued after the interval as Cai and Lu dominated proceedings to take the game 21-7 and progress through to the next round.
While the Singles campaign has got off to a good start, India have struggled in doubles. The two mixed doubles pairs of Aparna Bala and Arun Vishnu and Tarun Kona and Sikki Reddy were knocked out yesterday in the first round.
Much, though, was expected from Attri and Reddy, considering they were coming on the back of some form, having reached the finals of the US Open Grand Prix Gold in June and also the semifinals of the Canada Open.
But unfortunately, they failed to raise their game on the global stage and succumbed pretty meekly in the end.
