Bhat in Aus Open pre quarters

National champion Arvind Bhat reached the pre-quarterfinals of the Australian Open badminton tournament after beating Iranian Kaveh Mehrabi in the second round here on Thursday.

Arvind was the lone survivor from India in men's singles as his colleagues RMV Gurusai Datt, Aditya Elango and Eshan Naqvi lost their respective matches.

Arvind defeated Mehrabi 21-14 21-16, but the other Indians in the fray had a disappointing day.

Datt lost to China's Yi Lu 11-21 18-21, Elango was shown the door by Tommy Sugiarto of Indonesia 12-21 5-21, while Naqvi was knocked out by Hong Kong's Yan Kit Chan 7-21 8-21.

Arvind had defeated USA's Nicholas Jinadasa 21-19 21-5 in the first round.