Indians out of Singapore Open singles

All England champion and fifth-seeded Pulella Gopichand went down fighting to Lin Dan of China in the first round of the $120,000 Singapore Open badminton tournament on Wendesday.

Gopichand, afllicted by an injury at the fag end of a pulsating match, lost 5-7, 7-1, 8-6, 2-7, 3-7.

The Indian, who had rallied back from a game down to take a 2-1 lead, had a fall in the fourth game which appeared to have unsettled him.

"I was a bit shaken. My wrist was a bit sore, but otherwise I felt okay. It's just that I lost my rhythm completely and since I was 2-5 down at the time, it became difficult for me to recover from there," said Gopichand after the match.

"The decider was again tough going for me," he added.

Another seeded player to find it tough in the opening round was Anders Boesen of Denmark. The eighth seeded Dane twice had his lead pegged back by Malaysia's Lee Chong Wei before clinching the decider to take the match 7-3, 2-7, 7-5, 5-7, 7-1.

The other seeded players all enjoyed easy outings, with top seeded Chen Hong leading the way with a polished performance against Belgian qualifier Wouter Claes winning 7-0, 7-1, 7-2.

And not giving anything away was Sweden's 12th seed George Rimarcdi, who blanked Robert Kwee of The Netherlands 7-0, 7-0, 7-0 in double quick time.

Gopichand's first round exit leaves the field clear for fourth seed Marleve Mainaky of Indonesia in the bottom half of the draw already weakened by the withdrawal of Peter-Gade Christansen.

Mainaky waltzed through his first round clash with Sweden's Rasmus Wengberg 7-0 7-5 7-3 in a contest that was more one-sided than the score would suggest.

All the other Indians in the fray also crashed out of the tournament. Chetan Anand, Sachin Ratti and Thomas Sannave went down in the second round while Abhinn Shyam Gupta and V Diju lost in the first round.

Anand defeated Kuan Beng Hong of Malaysia 7-3, 7-1, 1-7, 7-5 before going down to Indra Wijaya of Singapore 4-7, 0-7, 3-7 in the second round.

Ratti defeated Anggun Nugroho of Indonesia 8-7, 8-6, 7-5 before losing to Boonsak Polsana of Thailand 6-8, 4-7, 7-2, 4-7 in the second round.

Thomas defeated Ho Hee Teck Gerald of Singapore 7-4 , 7-3 , 7-4 before losing to Johan Hadikusuma of Indonesia 5-7, 1-7, 7-5, 4-7 in the seond round.

Abhinn lost to the third seed Taufik Hidayat of Indonesia 1-7, 1-7, 2-7 while V Diju lost to Sairul Amar Ayub of Malaysia 7-5, 3-7, 5-7, 4-7 in the first round.

In the men's doubles, V Diju and Thomas Sanave defeated the Japanese pair of Yousuke Nakanishi and Shinya Ohtsuka 3-7, 7-5, 7-2, 7-2, while Vijaydeep Singh and Markose Bristow lost to the second seeds Wijaya Candra and Sigit Budiarto 1-7, 2-7, 2-7 in the first round.

Diju and Sanave will now face Dannish pair of Lars Paaske and Martin Lundgaard Hansen in the second round.

Earlier report:
Gopichand seeded fifth in Singapore Open