India's Arvind Bhatt beat George Rimacardi of Sweden to move into the second round while former national champions Abhinn Shyam Gupta and Chetan Anand crashed out in the first round of the singles at the All England Open badminton championships at Birmingham on Wednesday.
Bhatt defeated Rimarcdi 15-8, 8-15, 6-15 in 54 minutes and will play Liao Sheng-Shiun of Chienese Taipei in the next round.
Earlier report: Gopichand fails to qualify
Among the losers, Gupta, who had a direct entry in the tournament, was upset by qualifier Shinya Ohtsuka of Japan 15-9, 11-15, 11-15 in 1 hour, 32 minutes while Anand lost to Lee Yen Hui Kendrick of Singapore 2-15, 6-15.
Anup Sridhar, the other Indian in the fray, also tasted defeated in his first round match against Przemyslaw Wacha of Poland.
Sridhar, who came through qualifiers, stretched his rival before going down 8-15, 15-10, 6-15.
Nikhil Kanetkar is slated to play Michael Christensen of Denmark in his first round match.
Former champion Pullela Gopichand failed to clear the qualifying round hurdle as he went down to Cheol-Ho Lee of Korea 15-8, 15-11 in the qualifying semifinal in 40 minutes on Tuesday.
The 31-year old, who won the title in 2001, was hampered by a knee injury and an eight-month lay-off last year has cost him valuable ranking points, forcing the Hyderabad shuttler to go through the grind of the qualifying draw in major international events.
In the women's section, national champion Aparna Popat got a bye in the first round. She will play Zhou Mi of China in the second round.
Trupti Murgunde will play Yuan Wemyss of Scotland in her first round match.
