Sridhar was lucky as both his opponents retired midway to hand him easy wins on Tuesday.
In the first match, Czech Tomas Kopriva retired at 1-1 and in the next Swede Henri Hurskainen threw in the towel after 27 minutes with the score reading 21-19, 15-11 in Sridhar’s favour.
The Indian will next face top seed Chinese Lin Dan in the main draw in what should be a tough encounter.
Meanwhile, it was curtains for compatriot Ajay Jayaram in the tournament.
Jayaram won his first match against French Mathieu Lo Ying Ping 21-7, 21-15 in 21 minutes before going down to Christian Lind-Thomsen of Denmark 24-26, 14-21 in a 42-minute battle.
Published 28 October 2009, 17:18 IST