Sridhar beats Anand to qualify for India Open Super Series main draw

Former national champion Anup Sridhar beat Chetan Anand to move into the men’s singles main draw of the 250,000 USD India Open Super Series at the Siri Fort Sports Complex here on Tuesday. Sridhar delivered a dominant performance and did not allow Anand any space to win 21-14, 21-16 in the second round of qualifiers. Earlier in the opener, Sridhar got a walkover after Indonesian Wisnu Yuli Prasetyo failed to turn up. Meanwhile, K Ajay Kumar caused an upset by beating recently crowned German Open Grand Prix Gold champion Arvind Bhat in a tough two-game battle which lasted 38 minutes. [caption id=“attachment_1461285” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Earlier in the opener, Sridhar got a walkover after Indonesian Wisnu Yuli Prasetyo failed to turn up. AFP[/caption] The Hyderabadi beat Bhat 22-20, 23-21. The other two to qualify from the category were Thai Suppanyu Avihingsanon and Shreyansh Jaiswal of India. Former national champion Sayali Gokhale, Shruti Mundada and Mudra Dhainje were the local players to qualify for the women’s singles main draw. In mixed doubles, Jwala Gutta faced disappointment as she went down in the second round of qualifiers partnering Jishnu Sanyal. The Indian combine lost to Japanese duo Takeshi Kamura and Misato Aratama 12-21, 15-21. In the qualifying opener, Jwala and Jishnu beat Delhi’s Abhinav Manota and Rachita Sahdev 21-18, 21-13. In men’s doubles, Kerala shuttlers Alwin Francis and Arun Vishnu also failed to qualify as China’s Haifeng Fu and Nan Zhang beat the Indian pair 21-12, 21-17 to enter the main draw. While in women’s doubles, India’s Dhanya Nair and Mohita Sahdev entered the main draw after Thai pair Phataimas Muenwong and Kilasu Ostermeyer did not turn up for the event. The main draw starts on Wednesday. IANS