Gopi fails to make All England draw

Indian ace Pullela Gopichand failed to clear the qualifying round hurdle while Anup Sridhar and Arvind Bhat made it to the main draw in the All England Badminton Championships at Birmingham on Tuesday.

Gopichand, who won the title in 2001, failed to rekindle the same magic as he went down to Cheol-Ho Lee of Korea 15-8, 15-11 in the qualifying semi-final in 40 minutes.

The 31-year old was hampered by a knee injury and an eight month lay-off last year cost him valuable ranking points, forcing the Hyderabad shuttler to go through the grind of the qualifying draw in major international events.

However, Sridhar and Bhat joined three other teammates in the main draw.

Sridhar, the newly crowned National champion, thrashed Jonas Lyduch of Denmark 15-4, 15-7 to set up a first round clash with Przemyslaw Wacha of Poland.

Bhat defeated Vidre Wibowo of Sweden 15-10, 15-5. He will take on George Rimarcdi of Sweden in the opening round.

Former national champions Abhinn Shyam Gupta and Chetan Anand along with Nikhil Kanetkar have a direct entry in the men's main draw while national champion Aparna Popat and Trupti Murgunde are in the women's draw.