Indo-Asian News Service
New York, June 22: Their dreams of a maiden Grand Prix badminton gold title ended up in smoke after the Indian men’s doubles pair of Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy suffered a straight-game loss in the final of the US Open tournament here Sunday evening. The Indians were beaten by the Chinese duo of Junhui Li and Yuchen Liu 12-21, 16-21 in a 32-minute match.
Manu and Sumeeth blew a 6-2 lead in both the games to eventually lose the tie. In the first game, Manu and Sumeeth opened up a 3-0 lead early on and then extended it to 6-2 but the Chinese pair clawed back at 8-8 before turning the tables at 11-8.
The Indian pair took four straight points to once again wrest back a slender lead at 12-11 but they completely lost the plot after that as Junhui and Yuchen reeled off 10 straight points to earn the bragging rights.
The second game was an exact replica of the first with the Chinese pair restoring parity at eight-all. They took a two-point lead (11-9) at the interval and after that never allowed the Indians to come back.
