Anand, Kanetkar in second round

National champion Chetan Anand, Abhinn Shyam Gupta and Nikhil Kanetkar advanced to the second round of the All England Open Badminton tournament at Birmingham, England on Wednesday.

Anand beat Tooru Matsumoto of Japan 15-10, 13-15, 15-13 while Kanetkar got the better of Chen Yu-Hsiu of Chinese Taipei 15-2, 13-15, 15-13.

The highest rated Indian, Gupta had little problems in packing off Jan Frohlieh of Czech Republic 15-4, 15-8.

Anand will now meet seventh seed Kenneth Jonassen of Denmark while Kanetkar would play ninth seed Wei NG of Hong Kong in the round of 32.

National women champion Aparna Popat would begin her campaign against Yao Jie of the Netherlands later on Wednesday.