India’s top guns fire through to next round
India’s Saina Nehwal and PV Sindhu advanced to the women’s singles pre-quarterfinals of the World Badminton Championships at the Tianhe Indoor Stadium on Wednesday. World No. 3 Saina overcame Russia’s Olga Golovanova 21-5, 21-4 in only 23 minutes in their first ever encounter. In the third round, Saina will face Thailand’s 15th seed Porntip Buranaprasertsuk against whom the Hyderabadi has a 5-0 record.
Saina’s citymate Sindhu reached the pre-quarters after she overcame Japan’s Kaori Imabeppu in one of the longest matches of the day. The 10th seed won 21-19, 19-21, 21-17 in one hour and 11 minutes. The Hyderabadi now has a 2-0 record over the Japanese. Having endured a tough opening round match, men’s singles 13th seed Parupalli Kashyap got a breather Wednesday when his opponent Petr Koukal retired after just 11 minutes.
The Czech retired when the Indian was leading 14-5 in the first game. Koukal had injured his knee in the opening round and felt that he could not continue further. ‘It was a good match. I was playing her for the first time but it went on pretty well,’ said Saina. Ajay Jayaram lost his match.
<span lang="EN">Lee chong wei survives scare, Lin dan wins
GUANZHOU: Top-seeded Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia and second-seeded Chen Long of China made it through to the third round of the Badminton world championships on Wednesday. Chong Wei rallied for a 14-21, 21-18, 21-11 second-round victory over Dionysius Hayom Rumbaka of Indonesia, while Chen beat Sho Sasaki of Japan 21-15, 21-12.
Also, former top-ranked player and defending world champion Lin Dan of China beat Eric Pang of the Netherlands 21-14, 21-17. Lin, now ranked 100th because of injuries following his second straight Olympic gold medal last year, is on course for a quarterfinal match with Chen. ‘I couldn’t find my pace, especially in the first game,’ Lee told reporters.
