Dismal day for Indian shuttlers; Jwala,Diju exit

Indian shuttlers had a dismal day in Asian Games on Thursday as men's singles player Aravind Bhat and mixed doubles pair of Jwala Gutta and V Diju crashed out of the badminton competition at Guangzhou.

Bhat lost 19-21, 12-21 to world number sixth Boonsak Ponsana of Thailand in his second round encounter at the Tianhe Gymnasium.

Jwala and Diju further plunged the Indian camp in dismay as they squandered a first game advantage to lose a gruelling battle against Koreans Baekcheol Shin and Hyojung Lee in the mixed doubles event.

The Indian pair lost 21-17, 13-21, 16-21 against the Korean combination in a 36-minute match. Saina Nehwal, who will take on Hong Kong's Yip Pui Yin in the quarterfinals, is the only Indian left in the badminton competition.

Bhat, who had got a walk over in his opening round match against Niluka Karunaratne of Sri Lanka, found it tough to negotiate the smashes of Poonsana as the Thai player scored 20 smash points compared to Bhat's seven.

In the first game, Bhat caught up with Poonsana after trailing 5-10 to make it 12-12 and moved neck-to-neck till 17-17 but the Thai shuttler marched ahead from there on.

In the second game, Poonsana opened a six point lead and did not allow the Indian to come back as Bhat's game crumbled. Bhat's compatriot and Commonwealth Games bronze medallist Parupalli Kashyap had made a first round exit yesterday.