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Indian shuttlers knocked out
August 28, 2003 13:05 IST
Indian shuttlers came a cropper against higher ranked opponents in the second round of the Indonesian Open Badminton Tournament to end the country's challenge in the Championship.
Former All England champion Pullela Gopichand, national champion Abhinn Shyam Gupta and B R Meenakshi even failed to take the fight to their opponents losing their respective matches in straight games.
Gopichand was shown the door by fourth seed Sony Dwi Kuncoro of Indonesia, who won the tie 15-2, 15-6, while Gupta went down to 14th seed Malaysian M Roslin Hashim 9-15, 7-15.
Meanwhile, B R Meenakshi, who was the only Indian woman to reach the round of 32, was thrashed by fourth seed Chen Wang of Hong Kong 11-6, 11-0.
While Gopichand had to compete in the qualifying rounds to make it to the main draw, Gupta and Meenakshi were given a direct entry into the competition.
In their first round matches, Gopichand defeated Englishman Aamir Ghaffar 15-8, 15-7, Gupta got the better of Antti Vitikko of Finland 15-12, 15-9 and Meenakshi thrashed local girl Priyanti Cahyaning 11-4, 11-3.
National women's champion Aparna Popat, Trupti Murgunde and south-paw Nikhil Kanetkar had lost in the first round on Wednesday.