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New Delhi: Top seeds
Lee Chong Wei and Saina Nehwal advanced to the second round while
former Olympic champion Taufik Hidayat knocked out home favourite
and World No.7 Parupalli Kahsyap from the first round of the
$200,000 India Open Super Series here Wednesday.
In first round action at the Siri Fort Sports Complex, World No.1
Malaysian Lee Chong moved into the men's singles second round by
easing past Scott Evans of Ireland 21-16, 21-5 in 23 minutes.
In women's singles, Saina also had a fairly easy outing against
Belaetrix Manuputi of Indonesia, who lost 12-21, 15-21 in 33
minutes. Saina will meet unseeded Japanese Yui Hashimoto Thursday.
However, the talking point of the day was the Kashyap-Taufik clash
where the Indonesian saved a matchpoint in the second game and
came back to win the thriller 13-21, 23-21, 21-18 in exactly an
hour, proving why he is such a legend.
As Kashyap was cheered by a fairly large crowd, Hidayat also found
some support from Indian as well as Indonesian fans, who turned up
in large numbers to watch the legend.
Kashyap started aggressively, lobbing regularly to the third court
while Taufik appeared to be playing casually. The former World
Champion tried to fight back but it showed that age was catching
up with him. Kashyap, from 9-all, won six straight points and did
not look back, winning the game with ease.
The second game was an extremely close affair as cross court
smashes and drops proved to be vital to earn points, either way,
as both players tried to outsmart each other by deceiving net
play.
Though Kashyap led for most of the game, Hidayat made the most of
his experience did not lose sight of his opponent keeping the
points difference to a maximum of two. The Indonesian unleashed a
wide range of crosscourt and backhand smashes, equalising at
18-all and reaching gamepoint (20-18).
Kashyap retaliated by hitting two body smashes right into Hidayat
and won another to reach match point. The World No.26 answered by
first equalising the score and then playing the shot of the match;
a deceiving drop shot which sent Kashyap in one direction and the
shuttle in another, levelling the match.
In the third game, Taufik displayed inexplicable skill with his
trademark backhand sliced drops as he made the Hyderabadi move
around like a top on the court. Kashyap got closer to victory once
again at 18-16 but Hidayat right when it mattered bagged five
straight points aided by some exquisite backhand drops, which
caught Kashyap out of position, eventually losing the contest.
Another 20-year-old India K. Srikanth also caused an upset by
defeating Danish fourth seed Jan O Jorgensen. Playing the World
No.6 for the second time, the unseeded Indian took only 45 minutes
to close the match 21-7, 18-21, 21-12 in men's singles. The Indian
had earlier lost to the Dane in Swiss Open Grand Prix Gold last
month.
Women's singles eighth seed P.V. Sindhu, beat Xue Yao 17-21,
21-18, 21-14 in 46 minutes to advance to the second round where
she will face another Chinese Sun Yu.
Mixed doubles pair V. Diju and Jwala Gutta moved into the second
round by beating England's Chris Langridge and Heather Olver
19-21, 21-15, 21-16 in 53 minutes. They will next face Thai fourth
seeds Sudket Prapakamol and Saralee Thoungthongkam in the next
round.
However, both Jwala and Diju lost their women's and men's doubles
matches, respectively.
Japan's Misato Aratama and Megumi Taruno beat Jwala and Prajakta
Sawant 21-19, 21-10 while Diju and Alwin Francis' journey came to
an end against Takeshi Kamura and Keigo Sonoda of Japan losing
18-21, 14-21.
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