Anand, Jwala-Ashwini lose in All England Badminton Championship qualifiers
Birmingham: Indian men's singles player Anand Pawar and women's doubles pair of Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa could not cross the first hurdle as all Indians playing in the qualifying round failed to enter the main draw of the All England Championship in Birmingham.
Seeded No. 1 in the qualifiers, Anand squandered a one-game advantage to go down fighting against Indonesia's Andre Kurniawan Tedjono 21-18 13-21 19-21 in an hour and eight minutes match.
Commonwealth Games Gold medallist pair of Jwala and Ashwini also failed to tame the Chinese combo of Jin Ma and Yuanting Tang as they went down 21-14 15-21 17-21 in a match that lasted 54 minutes.
Among others, Indian woman shuttler Saili Rane and mixed doubles pair of Abhishek Ahlawat and Kristi Das also crashed out of the qualification round. Saili went down fighting to Ireland's Chloe Magee 21-23 20-22 in a women's singles qualifying match which lasted for 47 minutes.
Abhishek and Kristi, on the other hand, were sent packing in just 14 minutes by Indonesian combo of Gideon Markus Fernaldi and Rizki Amelia Pradipta in a mixed doubles event.
Top Indian shuttlers, including Saina Nehwal, Parupalli Kashyap, K Srikanth, P Sindhu and mixed doubles combo of Tarun Kona and Ashwini Ponnappa will play in the main draw later on Wednesday.
