Curtains for Indian shuttlers at Japan Open

Tokyo: It was curtains for Indian shuttlers at the Japan Open as young Tanvi Lad and women`s doubles pair of Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa suffered defeats in the second round of the USD 250,000 Super Series tournament here on Thursday.

After notching up an upset win over World No.18 Kirsty Gilmour of Scotland in the opening round, Tanvi suffered a 18-21 12-21 loss to China`s Xin Liu in women`s singles. Commonwealth Games gold medallist pair of Gutta and Ponnappa played out of its skin but still went down 12-21 23-21 19-21 to sixth seeded Koreans Kyung Eun Jung and Ha Na Kim in the women`s doubles event. Sourabh Varma surrendered against fourth seeded Kenichi Tago of Japan 9-21 6-21 in a lop-sided men`s singles match that last 33 minutes. The mixed doubles combo of Tarun Kona and Ashwini Ponnappa capped off a disastrous campaign after they went down 17-21 11-21 to Japanese pair of Misaki Matsutomo and Kenichi Hayakawa in a 27-minute match.