Arvind Bhat loses in New Zealand Open semis

German Open champion, Arvind Bhat of India today crashed out of the New Zealand Open after suffering a straight-game defeat to top seed Jen Hao Hsu of Chinese Taipei in the semifinals of the USD 50,000 Grand Prix event in Auckland. The fifth seeded Indian, went down 14-21 9-21 to Jen in a 33-minute men’s singles match. [caption id=“attachment_1486861” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  The fifth seeded Indian, went down 14-21 9-21 to Jen in a 33-minute men’s singles match. Reuters[/caption] Arvind fought back from 2-5 to 6-6 in the first game but Jen broke off at 9-9 and never gave the Indian another chance to claw back. In the second game, Jen was more dominating as he accumulated points at will to create a huge gulf which Arvind could not bridge. From 4-4, Jen jumped to 9-4 and then 16-5 as Arvind’s game crumbled. Two-time national champion, Arvind, had defeated Malaysia’s Tang Jie Chen 21-8 21-14 before edging out another Malaysian Chun Seang Tan, seeded third, 22-20 9-21 21-18 in another match last night. The other Indian in the fray, second seed Sourabh Varma too bowed out yesterday after losing 18-21 15-21 to 14th seed Kuei Chun Shih of Chinese Taipei. PTI