Gurusaidutt goes down fighting to No 1 Wei

India's campaign at the Australian Open Grand Prix Gold badminton tournament ended on Thursday after R M V Gurusaidutt and Anand Pawar lost their respective third round matches in the men's singles, in Sydney.

Eleventh seed Gurusaidutt gave a tough fight to world No 1 Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia before going down 10-21, 21-18, 15-21 in a little less than an hour.

Pawar, seeded 14th, lost to fourth seed Wei Feng Chong of Malaysia 19-21, 15-21 in 41 minutes.

The other Indians in both the men's and women's categories bowed out of the tournament in the earlier rounds.

Gurusaidutt was hardly a match for the world No 1 in the opener and was forced to play the catch-up game.

But in the second game Gurusaidutt got his act together. It was a neck-and-neck battle till 15-15 before the 23-year-old Indian opened up a

18-15 lead. He then simply surged ahead to seal the game.

In the decider, even though he started off well to make it 7-7, Gurusaidutt lost the plot.

Meanwhile, Pawar fought hard in the first game. From 11-17 down at one stage, he reduced the margin but finally lost 19-21.

In the next game, Pawar failed to live up to the early promise as Wei Feng Chong maintained the lead and cruised home.