Badminton Asia Championships | Mixed doubles pairs bow out in first round
Before the Indian contingent could start their campaign in a full-fledged manner, two mixed doubles pairs – Rohan Kapoor/ Kuhoo Garg and Saurabh Sharma/ Anoushka Parikh - have already bowed out in the first round itself. Two other mixed doubles pairs, however, advanced further by virtue of walkover.
Kapoor and Garg were competing from Group A of the mixed doubles category and were up against Indonesia’s Praveen Jordan and Melati Daeva Oktavianti. And it was no competition whatsoever from the very beginning with the Indonesian pair leading 11-3 at the break to kill the first game very early. Even after the break, the Indian pair hardly made a comeback losing it 21-5.
It was life and death in the second one and the Indian pair did decide to show up although they still trailed 11-6 at the break. After the break, they came close at 13-11 to cut the deficit, but their opponents opened up a big lead at 17-12, which was impossible to cut back again. Eventually, they lost it 21-15.
From the Group C was playing the pair of Sharma and Parikh and were up against Thailand’s Dechapol Puavaranukroh and Sapsiree Taerattanachai. And this match was even more straightforward than the last one with the Thai pair commanding proceedings right from the start.
The first game saw the Indian duo trailing 6-11 at the break before they went on to lose 9-21. The second game followed almost an identical path in terms of points progression as the Indians trailed 6-11 again this time, and eventually went on to lose 9-21.
Two other pairs, Utkarsh Arora and Karishma Wadkar from Group C and Venkat Gaurav Prasad and Juhi Dewangan from Group D got walkovers to progress into the second round.