Sridhar advances to pre-quarters of Asian Badminton championship

Johor Bahru, Malaysia, Apr 12 (UNI) Anup Sridhar advanced to the pre-quarterfinals with a 23-21, 21-14 victory over Poompat Sapkulchananart of Thailand in the men's singles second round match of Yonex-Sunrise Asian Badminton Championship here today.

Sridhar, who reached the semi-finals of the German Open Grand Prix last month, will play Hsieh Yu Hsing of Taipei for a place in the last eight.

Sridhar had earlier beaten Bangladesh's Mostafa Jabed Mohammed 21-3, 21-9 in the opening round.

Two other Indians in the fray, Ravinder Singh and Anand Pawar, however, crashed out of the 125000 dollar tournament. While Ravinder lost to Chan Yan Kit of Hong Kong 10-21, 14-21, Pawar succumbed to Chen Hong of China 11-21, 13-21 in their second round matches.

In men's doubles opening round, Akshay Dewalkar and Jishnu Sanyal got the better of Duong Bao Duc and Nguyen Hoang Nam of Vietnam 21-16, 21-12, while the duo of Thomas Sanave and Rupesh Kumar lost to Taipei pair of Lee Sheng Mu and Fang Chieh Min 15-21, 18-21.

Dewalkar and Sanyal will now meet Hong Kong pair of Njoto Alberus Susanto and Wiratama Yohan Hadikusumo, who did short work of Syed Ebrahim Jaffar and Syed Ebrahim Hamid of Bahrain 21-6, 21-11, in the second round.

In mixed doubles, Indian challenge ended with V Diju and Aparna Balan losing to Xu Chen and Zhao Tingting of China 17-21, 16-21.

They had earlier beaten Koreans Cho Gun Woo and Hong Soo Jung 21-7, 21-12.

UNI