New Delhi: Top Indian shuttlers Anup Sridhar and Chetan Anand crashed out of the men's singles event of the Asian championship with straight-game defeats in the first round at Johor Bahru in Malaysia today.

Highest-ranked Indian, Sridhar, who recovered from an injury recently, gave little opposition to seventh seeded Sung Hwan Park of Korea to lose 9-21,13-21 and bow out of the tournament.

Chetan, who was the losing finalist in the India Open Grand Prix last month, lost his first round match 19-21,24-26 to Hiroyuki Endo of Japan in a 47-minute close contest.

The loss virtually ended world number 47 Chetan's chances of making it to the Beijing Olympics as it is the final qualifying event of quadrennial mega event.

Sridhar though still has a chance of making it to Beijing as he is ranked 24th in the world and top 38 in the May 1 rankings list get automatic qualification.

Anand Pawar was also no match to 10th seed Simon Santoso of Indonesia losing 16-21, 9-21 in 34 minutes.

P Kashyap, however, saved the day for the Indians and he came from behind to score a 11-21, 21-17, 21-10 victory over Chinese Yi Lu in a tough 50-minute contest.

Kashyap now faces a tough task in the second round as he is pitted against third seed Chinese Chunlai Bao in the second round.

In mixed doubles, V Diju and Jwala Gutta made it to second round after a 21-17, 23-21 victory over the Korean pair of Sang Hoon Han and Yu Mi Hwang.
Source : PTI