Finnish Open: RMV Gurusaidutt retires in second round, Indian challenge ends

The Indian challenge came to an early end at the Finnish Open on Friday as none of the shuttlers from the country could make it past the second round of this International Challenge tournament held in Vantaa, Finland. 2014 Commonwealth Games bronze medallist RMV Gurusaidutt, Siril Verma and Shreyansh Jaiswal were the only Indians to enter the second round in men’s singles.

Gurusaidutt had won three matches in the qualifying rounds to secure his berth in the main draw of this event. On Friday, the 122nd ranked Indian played a long match to edge World No. 79 Sergey Sirant 21-14, 15-21, 21-19 in the morning. Later in the day, he had to concede the second round to Jun Hao Leong of Malaysia after trailing 6-11 in the first game.

The former World No. 19 had come to this event after winning a couple of rounds at the Orleans Masters last week.

Siril Verma, a former World Junior Championships silver medallist, went down to Indonesian qualifier Hermansah 14-21, 21-15, 13-21. Jaiswal was beaten 18-21, 17-21 by Iikka Heino of Finland.

None of the Indians could cross the first hurdle in women’s singles. Sixth seed Sri Krishna Priya Kudaravalli was shown the way out by the former World No. 8 Porntip Buranaprasertsuk, who secured a 21-17, 21-9 win over the young Indian.

Mugdha Agrey, now perched at a career-high 94th, was the only one to get a game as all her compatriots succumbed to straight-game defeats in women’s singles. Agrey went down fighting 21-11, 19-21, 14-21 to World No. 134 Ksenia Evgenova.

In men’s doubles, fifth seeds Francis Alwin and Kidambi Nandagopal failed to build on their quarter-final finish at last week’s Orleans Masters. The pair crashed out in the second round with an 18-21, 16-21 defeat to Indonesia’s Akbar Bintang Cahyono and Moh Reza Pahlevi Isfahani.

Arun George and Sanyam Shukla snatched a game from the second seeds Mathias Bay-Smidt and Frederik Sogaard before going down 16-21, 21-16, 17-21 in Round 2.

In mixed doubles, only third seeds Saurabh Sharma and Anoushka Parikh managed to win a round. The Indians were then sent packing 17-21, 19-21 by the Indonesian combine of Andika Ramadiansyah and Mychelle Crhystine Bandaso.