Date:18/04/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/04/18/stories/2008041855421700.htm

Sport - Badminton

Indian challenge ends

New Delhi: The Indian challenge at the Asian badminton championship met a quick end with the doubles pairs being eliminated at Johor Bahru, Malaysia, on Thursday.

Rupesh Kumar and Sanave Thomas lost to fourth seed Indonesian pair of Alvent Yulianto Chandra and Luluk Hadiyanto 7-21, 21-23 in the first round.

Akshay Devalkar and V. Diju made it to the second round, but lost 16-21, 14-21 to the eight-seeded Japanese duo of Keita Masuda and Tadashi Ohtsuka.

The Indian duo had defeated Jordan’s Noubani Ehad Nidal and Mohd.

Naser Mansour Nayef 21-6, 21-4 in the first round.

In the women’s doubles, Jwala Gutta and Shruti Kurian ran into top seeds Wei Yang and Jiewen Zhang in the second round and went down 10-21, 7-21.

Jwala and Shruti posted a 21-15, 24-22 win over Singapore’s Fan Frances Liu and Yu Yan Vanessa Neo in the opening round.

The mixed-doubles team of Diju and Jwala bowed out in second round after a 19-21, 15-21 loss to Indonesia’s Anggun Nugroho and Endang Nursugianti. — PTI