Most of the Bangladeshi shuttlers were knocked out on the opening day of Yonex-Sunrise Bangladesh Open International Badminton Challenge 2013, which began on Tuesday amid pomp and grandeur at the Shorawardi Indoor Stadium. Of the 14 men and women from Bangladesh participating in the Badminton Asia Confederation-sanctioned tournament, only Rias Uddin managed to move on to the third round of the men’s singles event after beating Malaysian Jinn Yee Tin 14-21, 21-15, 21-19.
However, in the men’s doubles event, Enamul Haque and Ahsan Habib Parash brought some good news from the wooden floor as the pair advanced to the second round by beating their Sri Lankan opponents 21-8, 21-9.
Lal Chand of Bangladesh beat Shane Thomas Masinipeni of New Zealand 21-12, 17-21, 22-20 in the first round but failed to overcome Indonesia’s Nathaniel Ernestan Sulistyo in their second round match.
Saleh Ahmed Shamol was defeated by Deepak Khatri of India in straight sets 21-4, 21-15, while Arif Hossain lost to Indian Gaurav Venkat 22-20, 21-10.
Muktar Hossain, Moajjam Hossain, Ayman Ibn Jaman, Anamul Haque and Abdullah Al-Mashrafi were also defeated by their respective first-round opponents in the men’s singles event, while Rahad Kabir Khaled, who got a walkover from his Indian Velavan Vasudevan, was defeated by Malaysian Shahzan Shah in the second round.
In the women’s singles event, Rehana Parvin and Nabila Aktar failed to move to the second round as they were beaten by Indian opponents Juhi Dewangan and Mohita Sahdev respectively.
In the men’s doubles events, the Rahad-Shamol and Mashrafi-Muktar teams were defeated by opponents from Chinese Taipei and Malaysia respectively.
Rias Uddin, the only surviving Bangladeshi, said he was confident against his Malaysian opponent in the second round, though victory was not as easy as he had expected it to be.
‘I was confident that I would play better, but after losing the first set it was tough for me to come back,’ said Rias, who will face second seed Subhankar Dey in the third round.
Mashrafi, who was defeated in both men’s singles and doubles action, admitted that the other participants coming from abroad were better than them.
‘Actually we did not get enough time for preparation to compete with the higher standard shuttlers,’ said Mashrafi.
‘Before the tournament, we took one-month training under Malaysian coach Farzat Shah, but the other shuttlers usually prepare themselves for the whole year, which made the difference.’
Parash, one of the winners the men’s doubles first round, was hopeful that they would move on to the third round by beating their Indian opponents.
‘We competed neck-and-neck against the Indian national team players two years ago. Though they [today’s opponents Abhishek Ahlawat and Bhaskar Chakraborty] are second-seeded in the tournament, we are confident that we will beat them,’ said Parash.
-With New Age input