Beijing: Shuttler Anup Sridhar's Olympic campaign did not proceed beyond the first round as Shoji Sato of Japan sent the Indian packing in straight sets at the Beijing University of Technology (BJUT) Gymnasium on Monday evening.
Fleet-footed Sato took just 37 minutes to tame Sridhar 21-13, 21-17 in a lop-sided match where Sridhar looked out of sorts for major part of it.
Sato got off to a good start, racing to 6-0 and he wrapped up the game in similar fashion, winning five points on the trot.
Sridhar put up a slightly better show in the second game, even managing to lead 9-6 at one stage. Sato, however, was quick to assert himself as he once again bagged five points in a row to go 13-10 up.
Subsequently, whenever Sridhar tried to catch up with him, Sato widened the gap. With the Japanese just one point away from a straight set win, Sridhar made a last ditch attempt and scored four consecutive points but it was too little and too late as Sato ambled to a facile win.
In swimming a place in the semi-final was beyond Rehan Jehangir Poncha's reach but he could not even better his personal best as the Indian finished overall 40th among 44 swimmers in the heats of the 200m butterfly event.
While sharing the pool with record-chasing Michael Phelps in the spanky Water Cube is an achievement in itself, Poncha's timing of 2:01.89 was exactly 8.19s behind the American sensation who topped the chart at 1:53.70 in the heats.
Poncha's personal best of 2:01.40 came last month at the Telstra Grand Prix in Sydney last month.
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