Thaindian News

By Avishek Roy
Hyderabad, Aug 10 (IANS) Chetan Anand lightened up the otherwise gloomy first day for the Indian shuttlers at the World Championships, advancing to the second round with an easy killing of South Korean Ji Hoon Hong at the Balayogi Stadium in Gachibowli here Monday.

World No.15 Chetan was in complete command as he dispatched the Korean 21-8, 21-16 in front of a sizeable home support.

Earlier, India suffered their first loss when in-form Rupesh Kumar and Thomas Sanave went down to Japanese Kenichi Hayakawa and Kenta Kazuno in a close battle 13-21, 21-23 in the men’s doubles first round.

The Indian duo put up a tough fight against the 14th seed Japanese pair, but lost in 39 minutes.

Arun Vishnu and Aparna Balan went down to Noriyasu Hirata and Shizuka Matsuo of Japan 14-21, 20-22 in the mixed doubles while Aditi Mutatkar lost tamely to Juliane Schenk of Germany 8-21, 12-21 in the women singles.

Chetan, however, played a solid all-round game to bring back cheers among Indian supporters.

“My three-week training in Prakash Padukone academy helped a lot. It was a motivating factor. I made some unforced errors and could have played better. Initially I had problems adjusting to the court. I started in an attacking note and it paid off,” Chetan said.

Defending Champion Lin Dan faced no problem in getting past Israel’s Misha Zilberman 21-9, 21-11, in the first round, while Danish World No.3 Peter Gade also sailed past Ukraine’s Valeriy Atrashchenkov 21-11, 21-16.

Top seed Lee Chong Wei went past Dieter Domoke of Germany 21-14, 21-12. Chong Wei said that he bit apprehensive because he was playing in the same court where he lost in the first round in Indian Open in March, but felt better as the match progressed.

It was veteran Dicky Palyama of the Netherlands, who created a flutter, upsetting Chinese Bao Chunlai 21-18, 21-14 to advance to the second round.

India had high hopes from the world No.18 doubles pair of Rupesh and Thomas, who recently won the New Zealand Open and were runners-up in Australian Open. But the duo squandered a lot of opportunities. They were leading 20-16 in the second game, but failed to clinch any of the four game points.

“It was not our day,” Rupesh said. “We did not get a start. The feeling was not there and also there was lot of drift. We did not get used to the conditions.”

“We almost pulled it off, but for some silly errors. We were leading in the second game and we should have held on to the advantage,” he said.

“After winning the New Zealand Grand Prix, we were high on confidence. We beat a Japanese pair in the final and today our opponents were also of the same level.”

Rupesh also said that he faced problems with the drift due to the air-conditioning.

During the Indian Open, also held at the same venue, players had complained about similar problems.

“I was not able to judge the momentum of the shuttle. It was very difficult out there,” said Rupesh.

Gade also said there was little bit of drift, but said it was typical of an Asian venue. Dutchman Palyama, 30, said that he kept his nerves during crucial moments of the game to stun Bao.

“This is an important victory in my career. I beat Bao four years back at the Korean Open. I have also lost to him twice. He is a good player and won the Singapore Open. I kept my nerves when I was leading. Suddenly I thought that I can win this game and then I stayed calm and did not think of the outcome,” said Palyama, a regular at the World Championships since 1997.

Mutatkar, who had been suffering from a knee injury for a long time, said she was just not able to mentally concentrate.

“I have been out of the circuit for a long time. But no complaints because there was no problem with my knee. I have fully recovered. The preparation was also fine. Maybe mentally I was not there because I am short of match practice. There were no national tournaments where I could have competed.”