Nikhil Kanetkar on Wednesday entered the second round of the Dutch Open badminton tournament while compatriot Arvind Bhat went down fighting against 10th seed Juergen Koch of Austria.
Kanetkar thrashed Arnd Vetters of Germany 15-5, 15-0. The 76-ranked southpaw was at his aggressive best as he gave no chance to his German opponent to fix a date with Jim Ronny Andersen of Norway in the second round.
In another tie, Bhat, who had to qualify for the main draw, lost to 30th ranked Koch 7-15, 15-2, 9-15. After losing the first game, he came back strongly to take the next. But the Indian lost crucial points in the decider.
In the qualifiers, Bhat had beaten two German shuttlers - Maurice Niesner 15-5, 15-7 and Matthias Bilo 15-5, 15-8 - to secure a berth in the main event.