Rusty Matthew prevails to avoid surprise early exit

Seeded as favourite, 30-year-old Matthew – given a first round bye – was kept on court for 75 minutes by his Malaysian opponent before coming through

11-6 13-11 8-11 11-3.

Matthew – who had to settle for fourth place four years ago in Melbourne – will now face 10th seed Aamir Atlas Khan, from Pakistan, who eased his way past Trinidad's Colin Ramasra for a

3-0 win in just 21 minutes.

Matthew, who was forced to withdraw from last month's British Grand Prix in Manchester because of a fever, admitted he was relieved to make it through to the third round.

"I've played him once before, but I knew he'd improved, and that he'd had a good run this morning, whereas it was my first match," he said.

"Maybe it will be good to have had bit more of a workout than I expected – it gave me a good chance to get the cobwebs out of my system."

There was less trouble for fellow Yorkshireman James Willstrop, the No 2 seed from Leeds, who also had a bye in the first round earlier in the day before dismissing Malaysia's Ivan Yuen in last night's second round.

Willstrop, recently elevated to No 4 in the world rankings, saw off Yuen's challenge with an 11-7 11-4 11-4 triumph.

In the women's singles, Harrogate's Jenny Duncalf – Willstrop's partner in the mixed doubles which start next week – eased her way into the third round with an 11-4 11-3 11-1 win over Guernsey's Zephanie Curgenven.

The 26-year-old world No 2 took just 18 minutes to book a match with Halifax-based 10th seed Sarah Kippax, who saw off India's Anaka Alankamony 11-7 11-4 11-3.

Elsewhere in Delhi, England's men's artistic gymnastics team took silver and only narrowly missed out on the gold to their Australian rivals at the Indra Gandhi Sports Complex.

England's team of Reiss Beckford, Luke Folwell, Steve Jehu, Danny Lawrence and Max Whitlock overtook Australia with one apparatus rotation remaining.

However, a faltering pommel horse performance from England and a series of supreme rings routines from Australia saw the latter emerge victorious with 259.050 points, 2.3 ahead of

England (256.750), while Canada (248.500) took bronze.

In tennis, English pair Josh Goodall and James Ward were first-round winners in the men's singles at the R K Khanna Tennis Stadium.

Goodall had a 6-2 6-2 win over St Lucia's Richelieu Alberton while Ward beat Michael Leong Patrick of the Solomon Islands

6-1 6-1.

There was also a Wales win for Josh Milton who beat Kenyan Francis Mwangi in straight sets.

Scotland's Mhairi Brown was beaten by Australian Olivia Rogowska, who won 6-2 6-1.