Aakarshi Kashyap, Harshit Aggarwal go down fighting against second seeds in Mexican tournament

It was a heart-breaking defeat for Aakarshi Kashyap and Harshit Aggarwal in the Mexican International Challenge badminton tournament at Aguascalientes on Saturday.

Both the Indian shuttlers had chances to cause major upsets but went down fighting against their respective second-seeded opponents.

Fifth seed Aakarshi Kashyap was edged out by Spain’s Beatriz Corrales 19-21, 21-16, 15-21 in an hour-long battle in the women's singles quarter-finals.

Unseeded Indian shuttler Harshit Aggarwal was tantalizingly close to recording perhaps the biggest victory of his career. But he was pipped to the post by second seed Lino Munoz. The Mexican squeezed past Harshit 27-25, 11-21, 23-21 in a marathon pre-quarterfinal which lasted an hour and 11 minutes.

World No. 103 Aakarshi Kashyap stretched Spaniard Corrales to three games but failed to deliver a knockout punch. After losing the opening game quite narrowly 19-21, Aakarshi, who turned 20 on August 24, staged a splendid comeback by pocketing the second game easily 21-16.

The decider was an intense affair with both the shuttlers giving their all for each point. The world No. 84 Corrales used her experience to good effect to quell the spirited challenge of Aakarshi.

Aakarshi Kashyap had begun her campaign with a couple of easy wins

Aakarshi Kashyap, who had made it to the women’s singles semi-finals in the last tournament in Denmark, won her first two matches quite easily but failed to clear the quarter-final hurdle.

Earlier in the day, Aakarshi thumped Miriam Jacqueline Rodriguez Perez of Mexico 21-17, 21-10 in 31 minutes to reach the last eight.

In the first round on Thursday, the Indian ousted another local player, Cristina Perez, 21-14, 21-7 in 22 minutes.

Another Indian player in the women’s singles, Shruthika Senthil, crashed out in the first round. Fifth seed Nairoby Abigail Jimenez of the Dominican Republic overcame Shruthika Senthil 21-19, 21-17 in 25 minutes.

Harshit Aggarwal gave a big scare to the second seed in the men's singles pre-quarters

Meanwhile, World No. 386 Harshit Aggarwal got off to a solid start by knocking out Spain’s Joan Monroy 21-14, 21-16 in 28 minutes.

The 25-year-old was on the verge of causing perhaps the biggest upset of the tournament. Harshit Aggarwal fought bravely and gave a big scare to the experienced Munoz before going down to the top Mexican player.