Indonesia's Olympic champion Taufik Hidayat exited the World Badminton Championships in dramatic style on Wednesday, beaten 21-14, 24-26, 22-20 by India's Anup Sridhar in an enthralling second-round match.

After dropping the first game, Taufik needed six game points before finally clinching the second and looked to be in control at 18-13 in the decider.

However, the lanky, elegant Sridhar was not to be denied against the 2005 world champion.

Two net cords in favour of the Indian levelled the score at 19-19 and when Taufik smashed long on the next point, the writing was on the wall.

Bravely, the eighth-seeded Hidayat managed to save one match point but succumbed at the next to become the tournament's biggest casualty to date.

India’s Saina Nehwal entered the third round of the women’s singles event with a 29-minute, 21-16, 21-10 win over 13th-seeded German Juliane Schenk on Wednesday.

In the third round, Saina will take on Frenchwoman Hongyan Pi, the fourth seed, who scored a 21-13, 21-12 win over Canada’s Charmaine Reid.

India’s Sanave Thomas and Rupesh Kumar lost to the 14th-seeded Indonesian duo of Hendra A Gunawan and Joko Riyadi by a 13-21, 14-21 verdict.

Defending champion Lin Dan of China was seeking to avoid problems like Hidayat’s later on Wednesday in his second round game against Hong Kong's Wei Ng.

A big crowd was expected at the Putra Stadium later for the first appearances of local hopes Lee Chong Wei, seeded two in the men's singles, and men's doubles pairing of Koo Kien Keat and Tan Boon Heong.

Earlier, Poland had a rare glimpse of badminton limelight when unseeded men's doubles pair Michal Logosz and Robert Mateusiak beat last year's silver medallists Anthony Clark and Robert Blair of England 21-16, 21-16 in their second round match.

Logosz said: "It's one of our best results ever. Tomorrow, we want to play as well as we did today."

Poland had looked like pulling off another upset on the adjacent court when women's singles player Kamila Augustyn took the first set off 16th-seed Tracey Hallam, but the Englishwoman fought back to win 15-21, 21-16, 21-11.