25 March,2009 02:03 PM IST | | PTI
Third seed Chetan Anand staved off an early scare from Chong Chieh Lok of Malaysia to enter into second round of the Indian Open Grand Prix badminton tournament here today.
The Indian shuttler wrapped up the affair 14-21 21-9 22-20 in a grueling tie that lasted for 47 minutes. Meanwhile, Chinese shuttler Long Chen pulled off probably the biggest upset of the tournament when he stunned world number one Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia 21-7 16-21 18-21.
Chetan made a strong comeback after losing the first game 14-21 to the Malaysian and spanked him 21-9 in the second, before the third game saw a tooth and nail battle.
The duo went neck and neck from 14-14, 16-16, 19-19 to 20-20, before the world number 12 Chetan sealed the match 22-20 to set up a second round clash with another Chinese Wenlong Zhou later today.
In the other match, world number one Lee Chong made an aggressive start, thumping Long 21-7 in first game but world number 147, Long soon avenged by bagging the next game 21-16, making it one-all.
In the third game, the Malaysian was trailing by five points at 11-16 when he put up a spirited fight to go 12-18, 16-18 and then leveled it at 18-18 but the Chinese had the last laugh as he clinched the affair 21-18.
Meanwhile, Anup Sridhar, seeded 13, spanked compatriot Sachin Kumar Rana 21-3 21-7 in just 13 minutes. Chetan, who faced a rather tough first round match, said it was good to have a tough clash in very beginning of the tournament.
"It is good to have a tough first round match as winning it makes me charged up and more confident and gives me a good momentum to go for a kill in the next matches," he said.
"There was drift from one side and it was difficult to control the shuttle and keep it down. There was side movements and I was finding it difficult to play my stokes and so I took some time to find my rhythm. But once I was in third game, I made sure he (Lok) doesn't go away with the match," the world number 12 added.
