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Persson tops Shon at World Badminton Championship

Jie Yao of the Netherlands returns a shot to Yu Hirayama of Japan on the opening day of the World Badminton Championship in Madrid on Monday. PHOTO: AP

Joachim Persson of Denmark topped Olympic silver medalist Shon Seung-mo of South Korea 22-20, 21-13 on Monday in the first round of the World Badminton Championship.

Shon had beaten Persson last month at the Korea Open.

"Even though I lost to him in Korea, I always felt I could win today," Persson said. "I've been in good form and when I won the first game from the tricky end of the arena that just boosted my confidence."

On the women's side, Mew Choo Wong of Malaysia saved four match points and rallied to beat Taiwan's Chien Yu-chin 18-22, 22-20, 21-10.

"When I was down in the second game I didn't have anything to lose," she said. "I just tried my best to get the points."

England's Tracey Hallam overcame confusion of her start time to advance. Because of television concerns, Hallam's match was called while she was still in her hotel. However, the match was rescheduled and Hallam beat Lucia Tavera 21-6, 21-4.

Bjoern Joppien of Germany also reached the second round, beating Lee Yen Hui Kendrick of Singapore 21-17, 18-21, 22-20. He will next face top-seeded Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia.

Lee had a bye in the first round, as did last year's finalist Lin Dan of China and 2001 finalist Peter Gade of Denmark.

Also, eighth-seeded Bao Chunlai of China topped Stanislav Pukhov of Russia 21-15, 21-12.

"That was rather easy despite a tricky wind on court," Bao said. "It's important to have the right mentality on court in those conditions, otherwise you make silly mistakes."

The highlight of yesterday's play was the match involving Taufik Hidayat, the Olympic and world men's champion who will play Ng Wei in his first appearance since walking out of his quarter-final match in Hong Kong against Lin over a disputed line call.

The IBF is considering possible sanctions against him, but will not announce any decision until after Taufik has finished this tournament.

Meanwhile, joint fifth seed Chen Hong breezed into the second round with a 21-11, 21-9 victory over Pedro Yang of Guatemala yesterday.

The Chinese, a semi-finalist at the Thailand Open this year and winner of the China Open and the All England last year, put Yang under heavy pressure throughout, forcing him into a series of errors at the Palacio de Deportes.

Chen will meet Simon Maunoury in his next match after the Frenchman eased past Iran's Kaveh Mehrabi 21-17, 21-7.

In the women's event world number three Xie Xingfang, seeded joint third in Madrid, begins her bid to retain her title when she takes on Kati Tolmoff in a first round match later yestersday.

In a nail-biting first round contest Austria's Simone Prutsch managed to stave off a determined fightback from Finland's Nina Weckstrom to win through 21-10, 19-21, 24-22.
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