Asian Badminton: Gayatri, Thulashi crash out

Indian shuttlers Gayatri Vartak and PC Tulashi failed to make it to the main draw of the Asian Badminton Championship after losing their respective matches at the qualifying round of the prestigious event being staged at the Siri Fort Stadium in New Delhi on Tuesday.

Gayatri started her campaign on a positive note, winning her first match against Chandrika D Silva 21-17, 21-12 but the Pune girl couldn't get past Xin Liu of China in the second match and lost 12-21, 11-21.

Compatriot Thulasi also had a good start when she beat Sara Khan of Pakistan 21-9, 21-16 but Hsiao Ma Pai of Chinese Taipei proved too much for her as she lost 8-21, 9-21 to crash out of the tournament.

Thulasi admitted that she made too many unforced errors which put paid to her hopes in the end.

"She was very quick in the court and I was not able to retrieve her shuttles. Lot of my shots went outside the court and I made too many mistakes which proved costly," she said.

Gayatri said she was mentally tired more after playing the first match.

"I was getting mentally tired after regular intervals. There were long rallies and lot of my smashes were going mid-court. She is a very intelligent player," she said.

"I had some infection after coming from the Uber Cup and so I didn't get enough time to train. Hopefully I will pick soon," she added.

However, the Asian Championship, which is a test event of the October 3-14 Commonwealth Games, was not without any hiccup as chaos and confusion reigned on the first day.

The scoring screen was off throughout the first day of the qualifying, while the players were shuffled from one seating area to the other.

"We are being told to shift from this area to other since morning," a foreign player said.

Even the media facilities were not up to the mark of an international tournament as journalists had to shuffle from the media gallery to the mixed zone which were at good distance from each other.

Also the parking area was at a good distance from the stadium.

The venue, however, looked no less than a world class stadium and the playing conditions were also good.

"There is a little drift but it's OK. It takes a little time to adjust to the conditions," Gayatri said.