Srikanth upsets Danish fourth seed at India Open

New Delhi: Twenty-year-old K. Srikanth caused one of the biggest upsets of the India Open Super Series badminton by beating Danish fourth seed Jan O Jorgensen, but former national champion Chetan Anand made a first-round exit from the men’s singles here on Wednesday.

Playing the Danish World No.6 for the second time, the unseeded Indian Srikanth took only 45 minutes to close the match 21-7, 18-21, 21-12 at the Siri Fort Sports Complex here. The Indian had earlier lost to the Dane in the Swiss Open Grand Prix Gold last month.

Veteran Anand’s campaign came to an end as he lost to Sourabh Verma 13-21, 8-21 in little more than half an hour.

Meanwhile, Malaysian top seed Lee Chong-wei advanced to the second round by destroying Scott Evans of Ireland 21-16, 21-5 in 23 minutes in the $200,000 tier two tournament.

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.

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 18-21, 14-21.