Nagpur shuttler Rohan qualifies for main draw, ousted in round 1 of Indonesia International Challenge
NAGPUR: Playing back-to-back matches in his first international tournament after a gap of almost a year took its toll on Nagpur's star shuttler Rohan Gurbani.
The 22-year-old Rohan, who played and won a silver medal in his first senior state tournament after a four-month injury lay off, represented the country in the Indonesia International Challenge at Pekanbaru. In a positive start to his campaign, Rohan recorded a hard-fought victory in the qualification round to seal his spot in the men's singles main draw of 64 shuttlers on Tuesday.
After qualifying in the morning session, Rohan played his opening round tie in the evening session where the city shuttler went down against a higher ranked compatriot.
In his first international tournament after playing in Thailand last year in September, Rohan looked a bit nervous and took time to settle into his groove. In the qualifying match, Rohan rallied to get the better of Carlo Glenn Remo from Philippines 18-21, 21-8, 21-17 in a 46-minute thriller.
Later in the night, the Nagpur shuttler went down against higher ranked compatriot Pranay Katta in straight games 13-21, 11-21 to crash out of the tournament.
