National women's champion Aparna Popat got the better of qualifier Rachel Van Cutsen of Netherlands to move into the second round of the Swiss Open badminton tournament at Basel, Switzerland.

Popat lost the opening game but came back strongly to beat Cutsen 8-11, 11-4, 11-5 in 34 minutes, according to information received in New Delhi.

She will now face eighth seed Petya Nedeltcheva of Bulgaria in the next round.

But it was not a happy outing for world no. 55 Nikhil Kanetkar in the men's draw as he was made to bite the dust by Arief Rasidi of France in the opening round.

Rasidi, ranked 22 places below Kanetkar, had little trouble in overpowering the southpaw 15-4, 15-9.