Gopichand advances in Singapore Open

Former All England champion Pullela Gopichand advanced to the second round of the Singapore Open badminton tournament while national champion Abhinn Shyam Gupta bowed out in the first.

Gopichand defeated Yousuke Nakanishi of Japan 9-15, 15-2, 15-8 in the first round of the men's singles.

Gopichand had earlier overcome Asuncion Kennevic of Phillipines 15-5, 15-7 to qualify for the main draw. He plays the seventh seed, Niels Christian Kaldau, of Denmark next.

Also Read Kanetkar advances in Singapore Open

Kanetkar faces Yohan Hadukus Wiratana of Hong Kong.

Meanwhile, Chetan Anand, who qualified for the main draw last night, lost to Sho Sasaki of Japan 9-15, 6-15 to bow out in the first round.

Another Indian casualty was Abhinn shyam Gupta, who lost 10-15, 9-15 to Indra Wijaya of Singapore.

In the women's section, Aparna Popat entered the main draw after beating Commonwealth Games champion Li Li of Singapore 11-8, 11-7 and Miyo Akao of Japan 13-10, 11-0 in the qualifiers.

In the first round of the main draw, Aparna was to play eighth seed Hongyan Pi of France.

J B S Vidyadhar went down to Chong Wei Lee of Malaysia 12-15, 15-10, 10-15 in the qualifying round on Tuesday.