Saina wins, Bhat loses opening singles in Badminton team event

Guangzhou, Nov 13 (PTI) India's badminton campaign at the
Asian Games started on a mixed note as Saina Nehwal triumphed
in the women's team event but Arvind Bhat lost his singles
match of the men's team event here on Saturday.
In the women's tie between India and Indonesia, Saina
gave India a winning start by beating Adriyanti Firdasari
21-16 21-17 in the first singles match in just 30 minutes.
Saina was extremely good at net as she hit 16 winners to
nine of her Indonesian opponent.
However, Bhat could not give India a good start in the
men's team event against Chinese Taipei as he lost to Yu Hsing
Hsieh.
Bhat came well after losing the close opening game but
eventually lost 26-28 21-15 13-21 after 52 minute battle.
There was not much to separate the two players as the
Taipei player hit 22 smash winners to 25 of the Indian.
Hsing was though slightly better at net and in rallies
and that helped his cause.
Now India's men's doubles pair of Sanave Arattukulam and
Akshay Dewalkar will have to pull off a win in the next match
to bring India back in the tie.
They are up against Chieh-Min Fang and Sheng Mu Lee. PTI
AT
HMI