Srikanth upsets fourth seed; Anand makes first-round exit

New Delhi, April 24 (IANS) Twenty-year-old K. Srikanth caused one of the biggest upsets of the India Open Super Series badminton by defeating Danish fourth seed Jan O Jorgensen while former national champion Chetan Anand made a first-round exit from men's singles here Wednesday.

Playing the Danish World No.6 for the second time, the unseeded Indian Srikanth took only 45 minutes to close the match 21-7, 18-21, 21-12 at the Siri Fort Sports Complex here. The Indian had earlier lost to the Dane in the Swiss Open Grand Prix Gold last month.

Veteran Anand's campaign came to an end as he lost to Sourabh Verma 13-21, 8-21 in a little more than half an hour in men's singles.

Meanwhile, Malaysian top seed Lee Chong Wei advanced to the second round by destroying Scott Evans of Ireland 21-16, 21-5 in 23 minutes in the $200,000 tier two tourney.

Mixed doubles pair V. Diju and Jwala Gutta moved into the second round by beating England's Chris Langridge and Heather Olver 19-21, 21-15, 21-16 in 53 minutes. They will next face Thai fourth seeds Sudket Prapakamol and Saralee Thoungthongkam in the next round.

However, both Jwala and Diju lost their women's and men's doubles matches, respectively.

Japan's Misato Aratama and Megumi Taruno beat Jwala and Prajakta Sawant 21-19, 21-10 while Diju and Alwin Francis' journey came to an end against Takeshi Kamura and Keigo Sonoda of Japan losing 18-21, 14-21.