Bangalore, March 10: India's Abhinn Shyam Gupta and Srikant Bakshi have made it to the main draw of the all-England badminton championships. In the qualifying rounds at Birmingham on Tuesday, Bakshi defeated Antonio Lopez (Portugal) 15-5 15-5, Jonas Lyduch (Denmark) 15-7 15-2 and Klaus Raffeiner (Italy) 15-8 15-5; Gupta beat Mark Burgess (England) 15-3 15-3 and Marcus Jansson (Sweden) 15-7 15-4.Another Indian player Sachin Ratti failed to qualify, according to information received by Badminton Association of India here. Ratti won two rounds in the qualifying draw before losing to England's Michael Edge 10-15 7-15. Kiran Kumar lost to Matin Dells of Denmark 7-15 11-15. Both the Indian women in the qualifying draw - Manjusha Kanwar and PVV Lakshmi - lost.In the main draw starting Wednesday, India's No 1 Pullela Gopi Chand plays Xia Xuanze (China), while teammate Nikhil Kanetkar takes on Belgian Ruud Kutijen. Gupta would take on Colin Houghton of England, while Bakshi plays Paul Hinder also ofEngland.National women's champion Aparna Popat plays Lee Kyung Won of South Korea in the first round. Incidentally, Aparna had beaten the same opponent in the semi-final of the World Junior championship in 1996.In mixed doubles, Vincent Lobo and Lakshmi lost after giving a tough fight to Chen Gang and Qin Yijuna (China) 7-15, 14-17. The men's doubles team of Jaseel Ismail and Vincent Lobo are in the main draw.INDONESIANS EXCEL: Top Indonesians got off to a flying start on the opening day. Men's third seed Budi Santoso swept past Canada's Michael Beres 15-7 15-5, Hendrawan beat Finland's Alexander Book 15-7 15-12 and Indra Wijaya beat Norwegian Jim Ronny Andersen 17-16 15-5.The tournament, celebrating its centenary year, suffered a succession of blows earlier in the week. Title holder Sun Jun and Danish world champion Peter Rasmussen pulled out yesterday. Top Malaysians Ong Yu Hock and Yong Hock Kin, ranked fifth and sixth in the world, and England's top player Darren Hall had also withdrawnearlier.
