BANGALORE, NOV 13: Pullela Gopi Chand and Nikhil Kanetkar, along with two other Indians have entered the pre-quarterfinals of men's singles event of the US $17000 Toulouse Open Badminton Championships being held at Toulouse, France.Gopi Chand, seeded four in the tournament, defeated Rezio Karum and Michael Mansuy, both of France, 15-5 15-2 and 15-4 15-3 respectively to reach the pre-quarter final stage of the tournament, which is part of the Olympic qualifying circuit, a Badminton Association of India (BAI) press release said today.He will meet Bruijstens Gerben of Netherlands for a place in the quarters.Kanetkar, seeded five, was stretched by French player Jean Michel Lefort, in which the former came through 15-5 15-13. Kanetkar meets Slovenia's Andrej Pohar in the next round.Kiran Kumar beat Marcus Arnet of Switzerland 15-9 15-1 and Pavel Uvarov of Russia 15-12 8-15 15-11 in a more than an hour. Kumar will meet Richard Vaughan of Wales in the pre-quarters.Former sub-junior National championAbhishek Bakshi also reached the pre-quarters beating Nicolas Roulland of France 15-4 15-1 and Belgium's Frederik Mawet 15-8 15-8. Bakshi meets Henrik Bengtsson of Sweden in his next match.Siddharth Jain gave a tough fight to second seed Vladimir Druzchenkov of Russia in the second round. Druzchenkov, who scored creditable wins over some of the top Asian players this season, was made to sweat by Jain.The Indian was up 13-10 in the decider before losing to the seasoned opponent 15-13 7-15 13-15.Other Indian juniors Chetan Anand and Arup Baidya lost in the second round to Ruud Kuitjens of Belgium 12-15 4-15 and Salim of Indonesia 14-17 3-15 respectively.Manjusha Kanwar fell down on the court while leading 8-5 during her second round match against the French No 1 Sandra Dimbour. Though Kanwar resumed after taking medical assistance, she lost the match 8-11 8-11.Indian down VietnamNEW DELHI: Indian shuttlers, who rattled China before losing yesterday, blanked Vietnam 3-0 for theirlone victory before bowing out of the Asia Cup Badminton Championship yesterday, according to information reaching here.India, with the lone win over Vietnam, went out of semi-final reckoning, but their performance has been laudable playing in particular without top two players P Gopi Chand and Nikhil Kanetkar.Indonesia will meet China and Korea take on the talented Malaysians in the semi-finals.Results: India bt Vietnam 3-0 (Abhinn Shyam Gupta bt Ho Van Loi 15-9 15-7; Ajit Wijetilek bt Nguyen Phu Cuong 15-14 15-5 15-8; Jaseel Ismail/ Markose Bristow bt Nguyen Anh Hoang/ Ho Vanloi 15-11 15-12). Thailand bt Chinese Taipei 2-1; Korea bt China 2-1; Indonesia bt Malaysia 3-0.
