Aparna, Kanetkar get easier first round

The Indian badminton contingent had mixed luck in terms of draw for the Olympics as National women's champion Aparna Popat and Nikhil Kanetkar find themselves pitted against relatively easier opponents in the opening round while Abhinn Shyam Gupta runs into a top-ranked player.

According to the draw released by the International Badminton Federation on Sunday, world number 27 Popat will take on African champion and 64th ranked Michelle Edwards of South Africa in the first round of the women's singles event.

In the men's singles, Kanetkar will play top Spanish shuttler Sergio Llopis while Gupta will have to face World No 16 Tae Sang Park of Korea in the opening round.

Though Llopis, ranked 44th in the World, is four places above Kanetkar in the rankings, the Indian is considered to be the favourite to move into the second round as he had comfortably won the only encounter between the two at the Mauritius Open last year.

The south-paw dominated the Spaniard throughout to take the quarterfinal tie 15-6 15-12 before going on to win the runners-up title in the championship.

However, advancing to the second round will mean a likely face-off with former World Champion Peter Gade of Denmark, who is all prepared to make the most of what is his last Olympics.

But it would not be an easy outing for Gupta who will have to take on the in-form Park in the opening round at the Gaudi Olympic Stadium.

But crossing the first hurdle is not going to relieve the pressure on Gupta by any means as fourth seed Bao Chunlai of China will be his most likely opponent in the second round.

In the women's event, the only trouble for Popat in the first round could be her unfamiliarity of the opponent.

Popat has never faced Edwards before and even though it might appear an easy outing for her, she would surely have to guard against any surprises.

Popat, who had lost in the first round in the Sydney Olympics against Kelly Morgan of Wales, will then most probably face fourth seed Mia Audina of Nederlands.

The Indonesia-born Audina is the only player, other than Camila Martin of Denmark, to challenge the supremacy of the Chinese and Korean shuttlers and is once again touted to challenge the might of her Asian opponents.

Park had won the earlier encounter between the duo way back in 2001 but is in tremendous form of late, reaching the semi-finals of the Japan Open, Korean Open and the Asian Badminton Championship in the run-up to the Olympics.