India’s leading shuttlers Chetan Anand and Saina Nehwal crashed out of the men’s and women’s singles respectively in the China Open Super Series after losing their first round matches in Guangzhou on Wednesday.
Saina, who won two Grand Prix titles this year besides making it to the quarter-finals of the Beijing Olympics , gave a tough fight to fifth seed Lin Zhu of China before going down 6-21, 21-12, 19-21 in 53 minutes.
Anand was nowhere near his best, as Malaysia’s Choong Hann Wong took just 26 minutes to send him packing 10-21, 14-21.
Arvind Bhatt kept India’s flag flying in the tournament, moving into the second round of the men’s singles with a straight games victory.
He was at his ruthless best while demolishing Wee Chung Pei of Malaysia 21-9, 21-13 to set up a second round clash against Petr Koukal of the Czech Republic.
There was some consolation for Saina though as she and her Canadian partner Anna Rice sailed into the doubles second round after defeating Ying Long and Ka Lei Mak of Macau 21-15, 21-17.
The Indo-Canadian combination will next take on the fourth seeded Korean pair of Jung Eun Ha and Min Jung Kim.
