Indian pairs falter at final hurdle in Australian Open

Melbourne: India`s title hopes in the Australian Open Grand Prix badminton tournament went up in smoke with both the women`s and men`s doubles pair suffering

crushing defeats against their respective rivals to settle for the runners up position here today. Top seed Indian men`s pair of Rupesh Kumar and Sanave Thomas lost 13-21, 11-21 to second seed Malaysian duo of Teik Chai Gan and Bin Shen Tan in just 26 minutes. Similarly, the new-formed women`s doubles pair of Aparna Balan and Shruti Kurian too failed to get past the last hurdle, losing 13-21, 9-21 against the lesser known Australian combination of Chia Chi Huang and He Tian Tang. Bureau Report