Singapore caused the first upset at the Sudirman Cup world team championships yesterday with a whitewash victory over Sweden in Division 2 Group A.
The Swedes, relegated from Group 1 in Beijing two years ago, were seeded No.8, but lost the first three matches to the 11th-seeded Singapore, with Li Li clinching victory with a battling 21-17, 14-21, 21-17 win over Sara Persson in the women's singles.
Hendri Kurniawan Saoutra and Li Yujia claimed the first point with a 21-14, 21-16 victory over Henri Hurskainen and Elin Bergblom in the mixed doubles and Kendrick Lee made it 2-0 with a 23-21, 21-14 win over Magnus Sahlberg in the men's singles.
PHOTO: AFP
Hendra Wijaya and Ronadl Susilo then added the men's doubles and Jiang Yanmei and Li Yuija completed the clean sweep in the women's doubles.
In the other tie in Division 2 Group A, Taiwan earned a 4-1 win over the higher-ranked number 13 seeds Germany. The Germans claimed the first point with Xu Huaiwen defeating Cheng Shao-chieh in the women's singles, but Taiwan's Hu Chung-syan and Tsai Chia-hsin won the men's doubles and Hsieh Yu-hsing beat Roman Spitko in a tight men's singles.
In one of the tightest matches of the first session, Hsieh pulled off a 12-21, 25-23, 17-21 triumph and then Cheng Wen-hsing and Chien Yu-chin put the result beyond doubt for the No. 14 seeds with a 21-12, 21-11 win over Juliane Schenk and Nicole Grether in the women's doubles.
OUT AGAINST INDONESIA: Taiwan reached the semi-finals at the tournament for the first time by defeating Denmark, with Chou Tien-chen beating Viktor Axelsen Taiwan yesterday crashed out of the Thomas Cup team competition in Chengdu, China, but achieved their best result at the top-tier badminton event by reaching the semi-finals. Indonesia were too good in the semis, winning 3-0 to advance to today’s final against China, who eliminated Malaysia 3-1. In the opening singles of the men’s team clash at the Hi-Tech Zone Sports Center Gymnasium 2, Anthony Ginting defeated Taiwan’s Chou Tien-chen 21-18, 21-19 in 51 minutes, which put a huge hole in Taiwan’s aspirations to perhaps even make the final. In the men’s doubles, Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Ardianto downed Lee Yang and Wang
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