Rupesh-Sanave played their hearts out but they neither had the luck nor the pluck as they succumbed to a 13-21 21-23 defeat to the 14th seed Japanese pair.
Indian men's doubles pair of Rupesh Kumar and Sanave Thomas hit a low after their recent success at the Asian circuit as the duo suffered a straight-game defeat in the first round to crash out of the World Badminton Championship here today.
Rupesh-Sanave played their hearts out but they neither had the luck nor the pluck as they succumbed to a 13-21 21-23 defeat to the 14th seed Japanese pair of Kenichi Hayakawa and Kenta Kazuno in just over half an hour match.
"We didn't have luck. Some unforced errors, silly mistakes put paid our chances," Rupesh said after the match.
"We didn't get the right feeling straight from the start and were finding it difficult to get used to the court. There was too much drift because of the air-conditioners," he added.
After seeing the first game slipping out of their hand, the world number 18 Indian pair pulled up their shocks and were leading 20-16 before eventually losing.
"We were good in second game and was leading 20-16 but I don't know what happened, whether it was luck or lapse of concentration we just couldn't do it today," Rupesh said.
The Indian combination had won the New Zealand Open Grand Prix last month and were runners-up at the Australian Open.
"We were high on confidence after recent successes and we had almost pulled off the match. I was finding it difficult to judge the momentum of shuttle. It was almost unplayable.
Asked about their opponents, Rupesh said, "They were good and they played well but we have beaten them before."
Indian wild card Arun Vishnu and Aparna Balan also lost their opening match against Noriyasu Hirata and Shizuka Matsuo 21-14 22-20 in 29 minutes.
Earlier in the day, world number three Dane Peter Hoeg Gade beat Valeriy Atrashchenkov 21-11 21-16 in the tournament opener but it was the victory of Dutch Dicky Palyama over 11th seed Chinese Chunlai Bao that stunned the spectators.
The Dutch took just 35 minutes to make short work of the Chinese 21-18 21-14 in the men's singles first round match.
Chunlai had won the Singapore Open in June this year.
"I have beaten him (Chunlai) during Korean Open while qualifying for Olympics and this is second time that I have beaten him. I have lost twice but I am 30 and getting old. So it feels great I can still beat him," said Dicky.
"I kept my nerves. In second game when I was leading 14-9, suddenly it struck me 'oh, I can win this one' but I shrugged off the feeling and concentrated on the game," said Dicky, who has represented his country in World Championships since 1997.
Asked about the security arrangement, Dicky said, "I am not scared. I can handle it but if the coach decides to go home I don't mind."
In the men's singles, fifth seed Dan Lin beat Israeli Misha Zilberman 21-9 21-11 in just 23 minutes.
"This is the first time I am playing here. The shuttle is a little slow but I will get used to it," he said.
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