The Indian badminton contingent had a poor opening day at the Hylo Open Super 300 event on Tuesday as the women’s doubles pair of Tanisha Crasto and Ashwini Ponappa and women’s singles player Aakarshi Kashyap lost in the opening rounds.
Malvika Bansod was the only Indian to reach the second rounds in Saarbrucken, Germany.
Up against fifth seeds Febriana Dwipuji Kusuma and Amallia Cahaya Pratiwi of Indonesia, Crasto and Ponappa trailed from start to finish in the first game. The Indians got off to a better start in the second game taking a 6-2 lead.
However, the Indonesian pair won seven points in a row to snatch the lead. That effectively ended the Indian resistance as Kusuma and Pratiwi secured a 21-15, 21-18 win.
Kashyap, meanwhile, bowed out after losing 21-13, 21-16 to Spain’s Clara Azurmendi in the women’s singles round of 32. Bansod progressed to the round of 16 after her Belgian opponent, Lianna Tan, withdrew from the tournament.
Mithun Manjunath, Kiran George, Sankar Muthusamy and the women’s doubles pair of Rutaparna Panda and Swetaparna Panda will be in action on Wednesday.