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Singapore, Taiwan upset seeds at Sudirman Cup

Cheng Shao-chieh of Taiwan competes on the first day of the Sudirman Cup World Team Badminton Championships in Glasgow, Scotland, yesterday. PHOTO: AFP

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.

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.
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