Hyderabad, India: Chinese world number two Chen Jin overcame early resistance to join Malaysian number one Lee Chong Wei and Indonesian former champion Taufik Hidayat in the world badminton championships third round yesterday.
Chen, 23, last year’s Olympic bronze medallist, struggled due to the drift caused by the air-conditioner before switching to flatter shots to overcome India’s Parupalli Kashyap 14-21 21-10 21-7. The organisers turned the air-conditioner ducts towards the roof before the event after complaints there was too much drift.
Lee, hoping to upstage Chinese defending champion Lin Dan to capture a first major title, outplayed Ola Fagbemi of Nigeria 21-11 21-14 in just 21 minutes.
Fourth seed Hidayat, Olympic champion in 2004, downed Mathieu Lo Ying Ping of France 21-17 21-15 to advance along with former finalist Peter Gade of Denmark, who shut out Sho Sasaki of Japan 21-11 21-12.
Women’s world number one Zhou Mi of Hong Kong swept past New Zealand’s Michelle Chan Ky 21-11 21-15 while Chinese second seed Wang Lin beat Japan’s Yu Hirayama 21-13 21-12.
Indian sixth seed Saina Nehwal, 19, had to overcome some resistance in the second game before defeating unseeded Russian Anastasia Prokopenko 21-10 21-17.
Chinese Olympic silver medallist Xie Xingfang, the fifth seed, advanced when Bulgaria’s Linda Zechiri retired while trailing 23-21 18-10.
However, two seeded women players were knocked out. Japan’s Ai Goto sent Malaysian 14th seed Mew Choo Wong packing 18-21 21-12 23-21 while Thailand’s Salakjit Ponsana defeated Dutch 16th seed Judith Meulendijks 11-21 21-16 21-11.
Two Austrian players quietly slip away from World Badminton
Hyderabad: Two Austrian players have pulled out of the World Badminton Championships and quietly left the city without informing the organisers.
The players, Juargen Koch and Peter Zauner, are surmised to have feared security threat and swine flu.
A Badminton World Federation (BWF) official told IANS that the two players have indeed left Tuesday evening without giving any reason.
“We are assuming that it’s a combination of factors since they have not go in touch with us.
“We got to know from the team officials. It’s their call and we couldn’t have done much,” the official said on the condition of anonymity.
“At the moment we just want to concentrate on having a good tournament. It’s very difficult for the team managers to convince, if somebody wants to leave,” the official added.- Reuters |
