Saina out as Sourabh,Gurusaidutt cause upsets in Indian Open

unforced error and failed to read the game of the 24th ranked

Japanese,against whom she had a 3-0 record coming into the

tournament,but succumbed to a 17-21 19-21 loss in a 34-minute encounter this time around.

“I am very disappointed at the loss. I didn’t play well.

I was confused what strokes I should play. She was moving fast on the court and was playing a lot of drops and half smashes.

She has improved a lot since the last time I played her,”

Saina told reporter after the match.

“I was not confident of my strokes. She was better

prepared. Everything happened so quickly,I don’t know what to say,” said Saina,disappointedly.

In the first game,Saina was lagging behind Goto right from the start and although she did well to catch her up at 10-10,the Japanese opened up a three-point lead at 13-10 and

held her fort.

With her back to the wall,the Hyderabadi opened up a 3-0

lead in the second game but Goto drew parity at 8-all and

moved neck and neck from there on to 16-17. At 19-16,Saina

blew a three-point lead as Goto wrapped up the match

comfortably.

“I was focused to beat Saina. I knew she would be under

pressure as She is playing at her home country,” said Goto.

Though Saina’s heart-breaking loss left her fans disappointed,two young shuttlers,Sourabh Verma and RMV Gurusaidutt,earlier gave India something to cheer about as they notched up the biggest upsets of the tournament on the second day.

A hithero unknown shuttler,Sourabh became the cynosure

of all eyes when he sent Athens Olympics bronze medallist Sony Dwi Kuncoro of Indonesia packing 21-18 21-19 in the first round.

Gurusaidutt eked out a hard-fought 22-20 18-21 21-19 victory over fourth seed Boonsak Ponsana to cause yet another upset on the second day at the Siri Fort Sport Complex here.

Top men’s shuttler P Kashyap,however,didn’t have to

break a sweat as he cantered to a 21-7 21-15 win over

Slovekian Michal Matejka to set up a clash with world number

two Taufik Hidayat,who notched up a comfortable 21-13 21-5

win over Anup Sridhar of Bangalore.

The 20-year-old Sourabh,who beat the former world number

three and currently ranked 37 Indonesian in a hard-fought

41-minute match,rated this as the biggest win of his career.

“It is my biggest win. I didn¿t get intimidated by his stature. I just wanted to give my best and see how things pan out and I am glad,I could pull off the victory,” said Sourabh,who is playing the first Super Series of his career.