Former national champion Rituparna Das was beaten in straight games in the final of the Belgian International Challenge on Saturday by qualifier Lin Ying Chun of Chinese Taipei.
The result was an upset considering Das, the world No 103, had beaten three seeded players en route to the summit clash. Lin, the world No 187, played two rounds of qualifying before getting through four matches ahead of Saturday’s final. The 24-year-old Taiwanese beat Das 21-16, 21-16 in just 31 minutes.
Das had earlier beaten seventh seed Fabienne Deprez, fifth seed Soraya De Visch Eijbergen and second seed Rachel Honderich in the semi-finals. In the final, the 21-year-old Indian led in the early exchanges with Lin before falling apart.
Das was the only Indian finalist after men’s singles fifth seed Subhankar Dey lost to Denmark’s Victor Svendsen 21-19, 22-20 in the semi-finals.
