Top seed Saina Nehwal of India booked her place in the women’s semi-finals yesterday, beating Thailand’s Porntip Buranaprasertsuk 21-13, 21-19 at the BWF World Super Series Masters Finals.
The 19-year-old Indian, a semi-finalist last year, needed a win in her final Group A match to advance in the US$500,000 tournament after losing to Wong Mew Choo of Malaysia in her first match.
Nehwal, who became the first Indian to win the World Junior title last year, stopped Porntip with some brilliant badminton in a 33-minute encounter. After a victory over Charmaine Reid of Canada in her second match, she is now assured of a place in the last four.
“When the draw was made, I knew it wouldn’t be easy and when I lost to Mew Choo, I was well aware that I needed to win my next two matches to make the semi-finals,” Nehwal said. “When I took the court against Porntip, I was not thinking of the semi-finals. I just wanted to go out there and win, which I did.”
Nehwal created Indian badminton history by reaching the Beijing Olympics quarter-finals.
Indonesia’s former Olympic champion Taufik Hidayat bowed out without a win when he lost to Taiwan’s Hsieh Yu-hsin 21-17, 21-15 in his last Group A match.
Taiwanese badminton player Lin Chun-yi had to settle for silver in the men’s singles at the Orleans Masters in France on Sunday after losing in the final to his French opponent. The 25-year-old Lin, ranked world No. 14, lost to Alex Lanier 13-21, 18-21 in a match that lasted 42 minutes at the Palais des Sports arena. It was the first time that the two players were facing each other in their professional careers. In the opener, Lin was slow to warm up, which gave the 20-year-old Lanier an opportunity to take an early lead with seven consecutive points. Despite
Paris Saint-Germain on Tuesday held their nerve to beat Liverpool 4-1 on penalties and reach the UEFA Champions League quarter-finals after their tie finished one-apiece on aggregate, while Bayern Munich saw off Bayer 04 Leverkusen to complete a 5-0 win over both legs. Lamine Yamal and Raphinha fired Barcelona into the next round as the Catalans bested SL Benfica 3-1, and Inter booked a last-eight meeting with Bayern by seeing off Feyenoord 2-1. At Anfield, Ousmane Dembele netted the only goal of the night as PSG bounced back from Liverpool’s late winner last week to force the tie to extra-time and penalties. Maligned
Taiwan’s Lin Chun-yi on Wednesday inflicted a first-round defeat on former badminton world No. 1 Viktor Axelsen at the All England Open. Lin came out of top after a back-and-forth first game before Axelsen dominated the second, but the Dane was not able to keep that form in the decider as Lin reeled off six points in a row on the way to a 21-19, 13-21, 21-11 victory. “If I don’t play my best, everyone can win against me,” said Axelsen, the world No. 4. “Today’s opponent played a fantastic game; it was disappointing, but that is how it is.” “I just tried
Two-time Indian Wells champion Iga Swiatek on Thursday avenged her shock Paris Olympics loss to Zheng Qinwen with a 6-3, 6-3 win over the Chinese eighth seed, setting up a semi-final against 17-year-old Russian Mirra Andreeva in the California desert. In the men’s singles, Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz put on a show with his acrobatic shotmaking under the lights to close out the day’s action, overcoming a 4-1 second-set deficit to defeat Francisco Cerundolo 6-3, 7-6 (7/4), while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei crashed out of the women’s doubles. Swiatek, one of the gold medal favorites when she lost to eventual champion Zheng in the
RSS