Anaheim (US): After an impressive start, top Indian woman shuttler Aparna Popat went down fighting in the second round of the World Badminton Championships on Wednesday (as reported in Thursday’s Late City edition).

The Indian challenge in the 14th edition of the meet thus came to an end as Rupesh Kumar and Thomas Sanave also lost their second-round men’s doubles match.

National champion Popat, who had ousted 10th seed Petya Nedeltcheva in Round I, gave a tough fight to New Zealander Rebecca Bellingham before losing 11-9, 8-11, 9-11.

Rupesh and Thomas, who got a first-round bye, lost 11-15, 11-15 to second seeds Chandra Wijaya and Sigit Budiarto.

Meanwhile, world number ones Lin Dan and Zhang Ning opened their campaigns with dominating victories on Wednesday.

Top seed Lin overpowered Kennevic Asuncion 15-1, 15-3.

Zhang was equally impressive as she crushed Taiwan’s Huang Chia-Hsin 11-6, 11-2.