BANGALORE, MARCH 5: On a day of mixed luck for the Indian badminton players, National women's champion Aparna Popat fought her way into the quarterfinals of the Swedish Open badminton tournament at Borlange on Thursday.However, the Indian challenge ended in the men's section, according to information received by the Badminton Association of India here on Friday. While Abhinn Shyam Gupta and Nikhil Kanetkar lost in the second round, Sachin Ratti went down fighting to Sweden's Daniel Ericsson after leading 10-3 in the decider of their first round encounter.Aparna scored two victories. She defeated Swedish Johanna Holgersson, ranked 29th in the world, 11-8, 7-11, 11-8. Later she outplayed another Swede Anna Zetterberg 11-2, 11-2.Aparna takes on Lee Hyo Jung of Korea in Friday's quarterfinals.Lee made it to the quarterfinals when her opponent third seeded Julia Mann of England conceded their pre-quarterfinal match due to an ankle injury.Abhinn Shyam went down fighting to Swedish No 2 and world No 27 Rikard Magnussou 7-15, 11-15.Nikhil Kanetkar lost to the host country's Rasmus Wengberg 9-15, 1-15.National doubles champions Jaseel P Ismail and Vincent Lobo went down to the Swedish pair of Henrik and Fredrik in three games.
