Indian shuttlers Gayatri Vartak and PC Thulasi failed to make it to the main draw of the Asian Badminton Championship after losing their respective matches in the qualifying round. Gayatri started her campaign on a positive note,winning her first match against Chandrika D Silva 21-17 21-12 but the Pune girl couldnt get past Xin Liu of China in the second match and lost 21-12 21-11. 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 21-8 21-9 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 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 an infection after coming from the Uber Cup and so I didnt get enough time to train. Hopefully I will catch up soon, she added.
