Gopichand loses in first round

Former All-England champion Pullela Gopichand crashed out in the first round but national champion Abhinn Shyam Gupta and Chetan Anand advanced to the second round in the Malaysian Open badminton tournament in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia, on Wednesday.

Gopichand started off well against Ng Wei but his form suddenly slumped from the second game and however hard he fought in the decider, he could not turn the tide and lost 15-9, 3-15, 13-15 to the Hong Kong player.

Gupta bounced back after losing the first game to score a 9-15, 15-8, 15-9 victory over Saman Ismail.

Anand, however, had an easy outing, defeating Przemyslaw Wacha of Poland 15-4, 15-3 to make progress.

Other Indians to make an exit included J B S Vidyadhar and Piyush Aggarwal.

Vidyadhar fell to Germany's Bjoem Joppien 10-15, 8-15 while Aggarwal lost 3-15, 2-15 to Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia.