27 July,2009 01:06 PM IST | | PTI
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 yesterday.
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.
