Hong Kong Open: Dipika Pallikal and Saurav Ghosal ousted
National champion Dipika Pallikal Karthik put up a brave fight but could not overcome the sixth seeded French player Camille Serme in a five-game thrilling first round match on Wednesday.
Down two games, the World ranked 19 Indian came back strongly to take the next two and queer the pitch of the contest. However Dipika could not sustain the tempo leaving Camille to grab the decider and wrap up the match in 52 minutes. The final scores were 11-4, 11-6, 8-11, 6-11, 11-6.
Earlier the lone Indian in the men's section national champion Saurav Ghosal, could not stand up to the class of the former world number one Ramy Ashour of Egypt and went down in straight games 7-11, 6-11, 10-12.
Joshna Chinappa is the lone Indian survivor now and her second round match is on Thursday.