Former national champion Anup Sridhar beat Chetan Anand to move into the men’s singles main draw of the $250,000 India Open Super Series at the Siri Fort Sports Complex here 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.
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 Wednesday.
German Open winner, Arvind Bhat, suffered a shock defeat to hitherto-unknown Ajay Kumar K in the qualifying round of the USD 250,000 India Super Series.
The 34-year-old Indian, who had turned back the clock to win the German Open Grand Prix Gold early last month, suffered a 20-22 21-23 loss to Ajay, who set up a clash with World number one Lee Chong Wei in the main draw.
"It is my biggest win. For the first time I will be playing in the main draw of the Super Series event and I am happy with my performance," said Ajay, who had beaten Deepak Khatri 21-13 21-15 in the first round.
"I had prepared well for the match. My coach Govardhar reddy sir helped. He is an experienced player, so I wanted to be more aggresive on the court. The parallel rallies were not working so I changed my game and made him run back and forth. My stroke were good today," said the Hyderabadi.
The 23-year-old, ranked 301 in the world, said he had to endure a lot to play Badminton.
"I suffered a lot to play badminton. Due to bad result, I was sent out of the Gopichand academy but my parents and coach motivated me. In November 2012, I suffered an ankle injury.
"I started playing again in August 2013, so I lost almost a year. It was a big task for me to compete against all the Indian international players. After injury I lost all sponsors, so it was difficult," said the Indian, who had reached the quarterfinals of Bahrain International.
Arvind credited his opponent for playing well in the crucial moments. "He held on at the final important moments. I had cold and cough but it is not the reason for my loss. I think he played better," he said.
Among others, Shreyansh Jaiswal defeated Subhankar Dey 21-19 14-21 21-8, veteran Anup Sridhar, who had got a walkover in the first round, prevailed over Chetan Anand 21-14 21-16 to reach the main draw in another men's singles match. Jaiswal will take on Brice Leverdez of France in the first round while Anup will take on other qualifier Suppanyu Avihingsanon tomorrow.
In women's singles, Shruti Mundada and Mudra Dhainje also reached the main draw.