Jayaram, Bhat in third round at Auckland

Ajay Jayaram and Arvind Bhat were the only bright spots on an otherwise disappointing day for Indian shuttlers at the New Zealand Badminton Open on Thursday.

While Jayaram beat Marius Myhre of Norway 24-22, 21-5, Bhat, seeded 13th, outplayed compatriot Kirtesh Dhindhwal, winning 21-16, 21-12, to enter the third round in the men's singles.

The other Indian men in the fray -- Anand Pawar, R M V Gurusaidutt and Chetan Anand -- lost their second round matches.

In the women's singles, Sarada Jasti, the lone Indian representative, went down fighting 21-18, 17-21, 17-21 to qualifier Vicki Copeland in the opening round.

Third seeded Jayaram needed 26 minutes to get the better of his opponent from Norway. He meets 12th seed Ji Hoon Hing of South Korea.

Bhat, who had an easy outing against qualifier Dhindhwal, winning in just 23 minutes, will meet sixth seed Andre Kurniawan Tedjono in the next round.

It was an off day for Pawar, but Chetan and Gurusaidutt fought hard before biting the dust.

Pawar, seeded fifth, was thrashed by unseeded Chia-Hsin Wan of Chinese Taipei 16-21, 14-21 in 36 minutes.

Fourteenth seed Chetan was beaten 21-17, 17-21, 12-21 by Parinyawat Thongnuam of Thailand in 56 minutes.

Gurusaidautt, seeded fourth, after losing the first game, came back strongly to win the second, but failed to keep the momentum going and was beaten 18-21, 21-13, 19-21 by unseeded Malaysian Beryno Jiann Tze Wong.

Image: Arvind Bhat

Photograph: Phil Walter/Getty Images