Hosts India suffered a setback on the opening day, with Abhin Shyam Gupta crashing out in the men's singles first round of the Asian Badminton Championships at the Gachibowli stadium in Hyderabad on Wednesday.
Other Indians, Chetan Anand, P Kasyap and Arvind Bhat entered the second round by virtue of walk-overs, as their respective opponents did not show up in the much-touted event, which turned out to be a lacklustre affair with China pulling out at the last moment and other nations sending second string teams.
Gupta lost to Chen Shih Hao of Chinese Taipei, who came from behind to romp home with a determined pace and grit at 15-11, 9-15, 8-15.
The Indian clinched a hard-fought first game but his play receded and the quality came down in the subsequent games and the visitor had little difficulty in winning the match.
It was a different tale in the women's section, Trupti Murgunde and Saina Nehwal entering the second round with easy wins.
Trupti smashed Puja Shrestha 11-3, 11-0 as the Nepali girl could not withstand her aggression. Saina also did likewise against Sahar Zamanian of Iran, winning 11-1, 11-0.
Top seed Ng Wei (Hong Kong) had a walk-over while second seed Kuan Beng Hong (Malaysia) defeated Balram Thapa 15-6, 15-9 in the first round.
