Saina, Chetan sail into third round on a day of upsets

It was a virtual colour fall at the indoor stadium here as seeded players descended to the ground like autumn leaves on the opening day of the Yonex-Sunrise India Open Grand Prix (gold) badminton tournament Wednesday.

First to exit was fourth seeded Maja Tvrdy of Slovenia, followed by India's Trupti Murgunde (7) and Aditi Mutatkar (5), and Mingtian Fu of Singapore (5) in the women's singles.

Later in the afternoon, fifth seed Anup Sridhar of India fell to Indonesian Yusuf Alamsyah as the bloodbath continued unabated.

However, top seeds Chetan Anand and Saina Nehwal saved the blushes with fluent wins in their respective second round matches, having drawn a bye. Saina beat Thilini Jayasinghe of Sri Lanka 21-7, 21-10 while Chetan trounced Mohit Kamat 21-8, 21-8.

India's P.C. Thulasi, runner-up at the national championship, was the most impressive among the giant-slayers as she knocked out Tvrdy in three games to advance to the second round of the women's singles.

Thulasi, only 18 and hailing from Thrissur, Kerala, lost the first game, but her superior fitness helped her to surge back as she drew Tvrdy into long rallies and thus tiring out the Slovenian who had little to offer in the decider.

"This is my second year in the senior category and the biggest win of my career. I had been working hard for the past three weeks for this tournament under coach Pullela Gopichand," Thulasi said.

"After losing the first game due to some simple mistakes, I maintained the pace in the next two to win. This is a good chance for me to improve my ranking by gaining crucial points as top international players are not in the fray," she added.

"I have been training at Hyderabad for the last three years in the national camp. I now need to improve my strength and stamina," said Thulasi.

Murugunde seemed to run out of steam as she lost 15-21, 15-21, to Singapore's Gu Juan while Aprilia Yuswandari brought some cheer to Indonesian camp as she ousted Fun 21-13, 22-20.

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