Shanghai: It was a bad day for top players at China Open as three seeded players, including fourth seed Saina Nehwal, fifth seed Jiang Yanjiao and eighth seed Cheng Shao Chieh were all shown the door at the Yuan Shen Gymnasium of Pudong, in Shanghai on Wednesday. They joined Germany’s Juliane Schenk, the sixth seed who was in the top half of the draw, as first round losers.
Saina made a strong start by winning the first game but went on to lose 21-15, 22-24, 15-21 to South Korea’s Bae Joo Youn in the women's singles after battling for one hour and one minute.
Bae Joo Youn, who defeated Saina for her first victory in four meetings with the latter, is fighting for a place in Superseries Finals, but must continue her winning ways in Shanghai to stand a chance of being among the eight qualifiers.
For Shao Chieh, a losing finalist at the World Championships in August, her defeat could mean missing out on the season-ending BWF World Superseries Finals which will be held in Liu Zhou, China, from Dec 14-18.
Saina, however, is safe after accumulating enough points from this year’s Superseries tournaments.
Meanwhile, Wang Xin stayed on course to be the first player to win four consecutive Superseries tournament with an easy first round victory.
Other seeded players out at the first hurdle are Mohammad Ahsan-Bona Septano (men’s doubles sixth seeds), Cheng Wen Hsing-Chien Yu Chin and Meiliana Jauhari-Greysia Polii, the fifth and eighth seeds in the women’s doubles as well as two pairs from the mixed doubles, Sudket Prapakamol-Saralee Thoungthongkam (sixth) and Lee Yong Dae Lee-Ha Jung Eun (eighth).
Meanwhile, there is no Indian left in the men's singles event as Parupalli Kashyap lost 17-21, 16-21 to Japan's Kenichi Tago in 46 minutes in his first round match. Ajay Jayaram also lost his men's singles first round match 18-21, 19-21 to Hong Kong's Wing Ki Wong.
However, Jwala Gutta and V Diju kept the Indian tri-colour flying by winning their first round in the mixed doubles. They defeated Indonesian team of Debby Susanto and Muhammad Rijal 21-17, 21-16 in half-an-hour contest.
Jwala, teaming up with Ashwini Ponappa, has also advanced to the women's doubles second round after defeating Australia's Leanne Choo and Renuga Veeran 21-15, 21-16.
Indian challenge also ended in the men's doubles event following defeat of Rupesh Kumar and Sanave Thomas. They lost 12-21, 14-21 to fifth seed Malaysian pair of Kien Keat Koo and Boon Heong Tan.
Agencies
