National champion Abhinn Shyam Gupta maintained his momentum to reach the pre-quarter-finals in the German Open badminton tournament, even as former All England champion Pullela Gopichand, Nikhil Kanetkar and Chetan Anand made an exit.
Gupta, who pulled off an upset, defeating 13th seed Roslin M Hashim of Malaysia in the first round, had no problems while outplaying Denmark's Kasper Oedum 15-6, 15-6 to book a date with Jang Young Soo of Korea in the round of 16.
In the women's section, national champion Aparna Popat bowed out in the pre-quarter-finals, losing to second seed Ruina Gong of China 4-11, 7-11.
Popat had beaten Judith Meulendijks of The Netherlands 10-13, 11-5, 11-6 in a first round match, played late last night.
In other second round matches, Gopichand was thrashed by Park Sung Hwan of Korea 15-2, 15-5, while southpaw Kanetkar went down to eighth seed Niels Christian Kaldau of Denmark, losing 4-15, 4-15.
Qualifier Arvind Bhat also bowed out in the same round, losing to 12th seeded Chinese, Lin Dan, 11-15, 7-15 while Anand lost to Dane Joachim Persson 15-13, 12-15, 7-15.
