Anand Pawar lone Indian survivor after round 1 in Scottish Open

Seventh seed Anand Pawar was the lone Indian survivor after the opening round of the Scottish International Badminton tournament being played at Glasgow on Thursday.

The world number 55 thrashed Sam Dobson of England 21-14, 21-7 in the first round to set up a second round clash against Bulgaria’s Blagovest Kisyov.

However, India’s challenge in the women’s singles withered away in the first round itself with national champion Sayali Gokhale, former national champion Trupti Murgunde and Jacqueline Rose Kunnath going down rather sheepishly.

Results (first round):

Men’s singles

7-Anand Pawar bt Sam Dobson (ENG) 21-14, 21-7

Prakash Jolly lost to Rasmus Fladberg (DEN) 21-14, 21-13

Women’s singles

Jacqueline Rose Kunnath lost to 11-Beatriz Corrales (ESP) 21-7, 7-2 retd

Sayali Gokhale lost to Sarah Walker (ENG) 24-22, 7-21, 21-17

Trupti Murgunde lost to 2-Carolina Marin (ESP) 21-17, 21-8

Indian challenge ends in Hong Kong Open

After the opening day high, India's challenge in the Hong Kong Open Super Series came to an abrupt end on Thursday with all the singles and doubles players making a quite exit.
While Ajay Jayaram had a difficult task of beating world number one Lee Chong Wei of China, P Kashyap had to concede his second round encounter against Tommy Sugiarto due to a suspected abdomen injury.
But it was the loss of third seed Saina Nehwal in straight games that came as a surprise.
Saina, who is nursing a knee injury, was up against another China’s Lin Wang, who is making a comeback after a serious knee injury.
Lin dominated the net exchanges in the first game and once she got the measure of Saina gave the Indian no chance of a comeback to win 21-19, 21-15.
In the men’s singles, Ajay ran close to an opponent who had shattered his Olympic qualification dream in April when the Indian lost to the world number one at the same stage. He once again showed grit and gumption in pushing Chong Wei till the end. But the experience of the London Olympic silver medallist finally made the difference in the 21-18, 21-19 victory.
Speaking to baddyindia.blogspot.com from Hong Kong, Ajay said he was satisfied with the way he played but unhappy that he could not convert his chances.
"A missed tap and some good smashes in the end cost me the first game," said Ajay, who also lost the second game after recovering from 11-4 to draw level at 19-19.
"I was much more patient and controlled the net well to claw back to 19-19. But then I made a bad decision of flicking my serve which he finished off with a big smash," he added.

Results:

Men’s singles
Ajay Jayaram lost to 1-Lee Chong Wei (MAS) 21-18, 21-19
P Kashyap lost to Tommy Sugiarto (INA) 11-6 (retd)
Men’s doubles
Pranav Chopra/Akshay Dewalkar lost to 2-Yun Cai/Haifeng Fu 23-21, 19-21, 21-6
Women’s singles
3-Saina Nehwal lost to Lin Wang (CHN) 21-19, 21-15
Women’s doubles
Pradnya Gadre/Ashwini Ponnappa lost to Duanganong Aroonkesorn/Kunchala Vorvichitchaikul 21-17, 21-18
Mixed Doubles
Pranav Chopra/N Sikki Reddy lost to 1-Chen Xu/Jin Ma 21-16, 21-10

Hong Kong Open: Ajay, Kashyap register upset victories in round one

The opening round of the Hong Kong Super Series turned out to be fruitful day for the Indian contingent with their men’s singles stars Ajay Jayaram and P Kashyap recording upset victories to move into the second round.
Ajay got the better of last week’s China Super Series Premier finalist Zhengming Wang 22-20, 23-21 while Kashyap saved a match point before toppling seven seed Jan O Jorgensen of Denmark 24-22, 20-22, 22-20.
The world number 27 Ajay, wasted four game points in the first game and then saved two in the second before winning the 36 minute encounter against an opponent ranked 10 places above him.
"At game point, he started catching me with his smashes on my body and it was difficult to get good length with the drift. Also I got nervous when I lost a couple of points," he told baddyindia.blogspot.com from Hong Kong.
Wang had beaten P Kashyap, who had beaten world number three Chen Long earlier this year, in the quarterfinals of the China Open Super Series premier last week.
Later, Kashyap showed how close the race for India’s top spot is when he kept his nerves to win the first round battle in just over an hour.
The diminutive Indian dominated the back court encounters and it were smashes that saw him through against the Dane. Even Kashyap wasted four game points in the first game and saved two in the second before the match went in to a decider. He will now face Tommy Sugiarto of Indonesia in the second round.
In the day’s other matches, world number three Saina Nehwal hammered Indonesia’s Aprilla Yuswandari 22-20, 21-8 in her first match after returning from an injury break.
The Denmark Super Series Premier champion had opted out of the China Open to nurse her injured knee and was a bit rusty in the opening game. But once she got in the groove, she ensured that her Indonesian opponent had no chance of a fight back.
Saina will now face former world champion Lin Wang, who is on her comeback trail after injury.

Results:

Men’s singles:
Ajay Jayaram bt Zhengming Wang (CHN) 22-20, 23-21
P Kashyap vs 7-Jan O Jorgensen (DEN) 24-22, 20-22, 22-20
Men’s doubles:
K Tarun/Arun Vishnu lost to Chris Adcock/Andrew Ellis (ENG) 21-18, 21-14
Manu Attri/B Sumeeth Reddy lost to Alvent Yulianto Chandra/Markis Kido (INA) 11-21, 21-11, 21-15
Pranav Chopra/Akshay Dewalkar bt Hafiz Faisal/Putra Eka Rhoma (INA) 21-16, 21-23, 21-17
Women’s singles:
3-Saina Nehwal bt Aprilla Yuswandari (INA) 22-20, 21-8
P V Sindhu lost to Belaetrix Manuputi (INA) 21-12, 18-21, 21-15
Women’s Doubles
Aparna Balan/Sikki Reddy lost to 2-Xiaoli Wang/Yang (F) Yu (INA) 21-3, 21-7
Pradnya Gadre/Ashwini Ponnappa bt Audrey Fontaine/Emilie Lefel (FRA) 21-10, 21-16
Mixed Doubles
K Tarun/Ashwini Ponnappa lost to 1-Chen Xu/Jin Ma 21-15, 21-16
Pranav Chopra/Sikki Reddy bt Phillip Chew/Jamie Subandhi (USA) 21-19, 21-15
Akshay Dewalkar/Pradnya Gadre lost to Fran Kurniawan/Shendy Puspa Irawati (INA) 21-18, 23-21
Arun Visnhu/Aparna Balan lost to Riky Widianto/Puspita Richi Dili 21-13, 21-11

Ruthvika bags triple crown; Dani, Joshi share boys singles spoils in junior nationals

Harsheel Dani, Aditya Joshi and Ruthvika Shivani continued to show that they are the future of Indian badminton by bagging the singles titles in both the u-17 and u-19 category of the Junior National Badminton tournament in Imphal.
Gopichand Academy trainee Ruthvika Shivani claimed a triple crown winning the under-19 singles and doubles title and the under-17 singles title for a cent per cent win record in the tournament.
In the boy’s section, Dani and Joshi, who were also doubles partners till they decided to concentrate only on singles last year, faced each other in both the finals and shared the spoils with the latter winning the under-19 crown and Joshi claiming the under-17 title.
Both the matches went on for over an hour with no player willing to give an inch.

Results: U-17 

Boys Singles: Aditya Joshi bt Harsheel Dani 14-21, 21-5, 28-26
Boys doubles: Sanmay Shukla/V Gangadhar Rao bt DBS Chandrakumar/M Kanishq 21-16, 21-13
Girls singles: Ruthvika Shivani bt Reshma Karthik 21-13, 21-23, 21-16
Girls doubles: KP Shruti/Farha Mather bt Reshma Karthik/Sanjana Santosh 21-19, 21-19

U-19

Boys singles: Harsheel Dani bt Aditya Joshi 21-19, 18-21, 21-17
Boys doubles: G Gopi Raju/T Hemanagendra Babu bt Shyam Prasad/Shlok Ramchandran 21-16, 21-16
Girls singles: Ruthvika Shivani bt Rituparna Das 21-17, 21-5
Girls doubles: Ruthvika Shivani/Poorvisha S Ram bt J Meghana/K Maneesha 21-10, 21-12
Mixed doubles: T Hemanagendrababu/J Meghana bt G Gopi Raju/Poorvisha S Ram 21-18, 23-21

Kashyap out of China Open

India's challenge in the China Open Super Series Premier in Shanghai came to an end with P Kashyap succumbing to the guile of Zhengming Wang of China 21-17, 21-7 in the quarterfinals.
The London Olympics quarterfinalist couldn't be faulted for the effort he put in during the 34 minute encounter. But Wang was too good for the Indian.
Kashyap began on a promising note, matching his opponent stroke for stroke and even using his deceptive flicks to score a few points.
But slowly but surely Wang began to take control of the match with his smash-tap routine fetching him points in plenty at the business end of the first game.
The second game was mostly a one way affair with Kashyap showing sparks of brilliance during a few points but never enough to challenge the might of the Chinese opponent.

China Open: Kashyap reaches quarters

London Olympic quarterfinalist P Kashyap saved a match point before beating seventh seed Tien Minh Nguyen of Vietnam 12-21, 22-20, 21-14 to reach the quarterfinals of the China Open Super Series Premier in Shanghai on Thursday.
The Gopichand Badminton Academy trainee faced a match point in the second game at 19-20. But he not only saved the match point but went on to take the next two points to take the match in the decider, which he won relatively easily to set up a last eight clash against local hope Zhengming Wang.
However, it was curtains for India in all other events with mixed doubles combination of Pranav Chopra and Sikki Reddy and men's doubles pairing of Arun Vishnu and K Tarun falling in the second round.

China Open: Only Kashyap survives first day mayhem

The opening day of the China Open Super Series Premier turned out to be a forgettable day for the Indian contingent with only P Kashyap surviving the first round.

The London Olympics quarterfinalist got the better of Sweden’s Henri Hurskainen 21-15, 21-15 to set up a second round clash against seventh seed Tien Minh Nguyen of Vietnam, whom he had defeated in the group stages of the Olympic Games.

While Kashyap advanced, there was heartbreak for all the other singles players with P V Sindhu going down against Eriko Hirose of Japan 22-20, 14-21, 21-19 in women’s singles, Ajay Jayaram suffering a 21-18, 16-21, 21-14 reversal against Daren Liew of Malaysia and RMV Guru Sai Dutt beaten 11-21, 21-13, 21-11 by Takuma Ueda of Japan.

The doubles specialists also could not do much and were shown the door in the first round.