Nikhil Kanetkar put behind his defeat in the final of the Welsh Open to make it to the last 16 stage in the BMW Open badminton championship at Duisburg, Germany.

The promising Indian youngster from Pune had to dig deep into his reserves to get the better of Swedish No 2 Daniel Erickson in the third round, winning at 15-9, 5-15, 15-8.

In the second round, Kanetkar conceded just three points as he thrashed Clarenbach of Germany 15-3, 15-0.

Andres Boesen of Denmark, ranked No 5 in the world, is the top seed.

Kanetkar plays Jens Roch of Germany in his next match.

Earlier, world No 10 and German No 1 Bjorn Joppien was beaten in straight games by Chen Gang of China.

The BMW Open, which was an invitational event till last year, has become a Grand Prix event this year and enjoys a 'One Star' Grand Prix satus, with a prize-money of US $30,000.