Defending champion Thomas Kurian, Mickelssen, Murgunde bow out; Chetan, Saina advance.
MUMBAI: The opening day of the Indian International Badminton Championships at the Goregaon Sports Club turned out to be quite topsy turvy in terms of results.
While the top seeds, Chetan Anand and Saina Nehwal, had a smooth passage to the quarterfinals there were some major upsets as far as the other seedings were concerned — the most notable of them being caused by Ajay Jayaram.
The promising Indian youngster came from behind to send fourth seed Peter Mikkelsen of Denmark packing out in the second round of the $10, 000 tournament.
Jayaram won the pulsating 45-minute encounter 14-21 21-14 21-16 against the world No.65 and the biggest international name in the men’s draw.
The win marked yet another significant achievement for Jayaram who had earlier in the year upset the then 12th-ranked Eric Pang at the Hong Kong Open in only his second tournament and had put up a good show at the recent Dutch Open.
“Basically I started badly as I couldn’t judge the pace of his game but in the second game I got more steady, raised my pace and started deceiving him,” said the winner, who next faces South Korea’s Lee Cheol Ho in the last eight. “Towards the end I started playing a more attacking game. This whole season I’ve been working on increasing the speed of my game and it is coming through well,” he added.
Meanwhile, the top seed in the women’s draw, Saina Nehwal hardly broke sweat in a 21-12 21-2 demolition of compatriot Jui Agaskar. The 16-year-old, who upset Aparna Popat to win this event last year, was just too good for Agaskar.
Chetan Anand had two straight sets wins — a 24-22 21-18 win over compatriot Sachin Ratti in the opening round and a 21-7 21-17 demolition of the seasoned Abhinn Shyam Gupta — en route to the last eight stage.
In other significant upsets, 22-year-old Rohan Castelino shocked defending champion Thomas Kurian 21-14 17-21 21-18 in a 53-minute thriller. But Rohan could not savour his upset win as he lost to Ho in straight games in the very next round.
In the women’s section, fourth seed Trupti Murgunde bowed out of the tournament, succumbing 20-22 9-21 to South Korea’s Hong Soo-Jung.
