Sridhar, Anand in second round

National Champion Anup Sridhar and Chetan Anand notched up contrasting wins to advance to the second round of men's singles in Malaysian Open.

Sridhar, who reached the quarterfinals of the five-star Indonesian Open last week, had little difficulty in closing the doors on Jean Michel Lefort of France with a 22-20 21-11 win in the Sarwak stadium of Kuching.

World no.27 Anand, who has not been in his best form in the Asian Circuit, was stretched to three games by Daren Lew of Malaysia before prevailing 21-16 17-21 21-16 in the first round of the four-star event.

Arvind Bhat was made to sweat by another Malaysian, James Chua, but the Indian pulled off a 25-27 22-20 21-14 win.

Rohan Castelino also crossed the first hurdle with a hard fought 19-21 21-18 21-19 win over Chong Li Qun of Malaysia.

Other Indians in the fray, however, failed to progress further. Anand Pawar lost to Malaysia's Kay Bin Yeoh 21-13 15-21 14-21 while J B S Vidyadhar went down 22-20 21-17 to local challenge Sairul Amar.

P Kashyap lost 21-14 21-17 another localite Yogendran Krishnan.

Meanwhile, rising star Saina Nehwal faces a tough draw in World No. 7 Yao Jie of Netherlands in the first round of women's singles.

In men's doubles Rupesh Kumar and Thomas Sanave will play against Roman Pitko and Michael Fuchus of Germany in the first round.