Abhinn Shyam Gupta defeated Jan Vondra of the Czech Republic in straight games to reach the third round of the German Open badminton tournament, being played at Duisberg, Germany, on Thursday.
Among the other Indians in the fray, national women's champion Aparna Popat moved into the second round while Nikhil Kanetkar and Arvind Bhat bowed out in the first and second rounds respectively.
Gupta, seeded 16th, was given a run for his money by Vondra, but finally prevailed 15-13, 15-13 to set up a clash with eighth seed Shoji Sato of Japan for a place in the quarter-finals.
In the first round, the Indian had to rally to beat France's Arief Rasidi 8-15, 15-6, 15-9.
However, the challenge of the other men's shuttlers came to an end as Bhat failed to keep the momentum going after upsetting 14th seed Hui Yen of Singapore in the first round and lost 1-15, 4-15 to Tooru Matsumoto of Japan in the second.
Kanetkar was thrashed 15-5, 15-3 by qualifier Keishi Kwaguchi of Japan.
In the women's singles, Popat had no trouble in beating local qualifier Katja Muchalowsky 11-2, 11-7. She will now meet fourth seed Huaiwen Xu of France in the second round.
