Sridhar, Prakash in Aus Open GP pre-quarters

Anup Sridhar and Aditya Prakash advanced to the pre-quarter-finals but four other Indians crashed out of the Australian Open Grand Prix men's singles in Melbourne on Wednesday.

Sixth seed Sridhar outplayed local player Hung Pham 21-14, 21-14 in the first round before defeating Malaysian Zulfadli Zulkiffli 21-17, 21-18 in 37 minutes.

The 26-year-old next faces American Nicholas Jinadasa in the pre-quarters on Thursday.

Prakash had it easy against Australia's Jacky Wu, winning 21-12 21-7 in the first round. He then stunned third seeded Malaysian Tsuen Seng Lee, winning 21-19, 21-19 in 39 minutes to set up a clash with James Eunson of New Zealand.

However, it was curtains for Gurusaidatt RMV, Abhimanyu Singh, Anand Pawar and Aditya Elango.

After registering an easy 21-5, 21-11 win against Australian Ashwant Gobinathan in the first match, Gurusaidatt failed to get past Indonesian Dionysius Hayom Rumbaka and went down 14-21, 19-21 in the second round.

Seventh seed Pawar beat Australian Nathan David 21-13, 21-5 in the first round before going down to another Indonesian, Alamsyah Yunus, 21-17, 19-21, 21-14 in the second round.

Elango first beat local player Vincent Choo 21-8, 21-13 before losing to France's fifth seed Brice Leverdez, while Abhimanyu gave a walk-over to Solomon Mensah Nyarko of Ghana in the first round.

However, it was good news for the Indian mixed doubles pairs as all four reached the pre-quarters.

Shruti Kurian and Tarun Kona beat the eighth seeded New Zealand combo of Kevin Dennerly-Minturn and Louise Mckenzie 21-13, 20-22 21-9, while Akshay Dewalkar and Pradnya Gadre saw off the local pair of Chad Whitehead and Eugenia Tanaka, winning 21-9, 21-23, 21-17 in the first round.

Another Indian pair, Jishnu Sanyal and Nitya Sosale, outlasted the Kiwi duo of Asher Richardson and Melissa Yin 21-12, 21-18, while the fourth seeded pair of Arun Vishnu and Aparna Balan beat New Zealand-Mexican combine of Bjorn Seguin and Angulo Deyanira 21-10, 21-17.

In the women's singles, fifth seed Neha Pandit will take on local player Louisa Ma, while Trupti Murgunde will face third seed Kristina Ludikova in the first round on Thursday.