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.”
Photo: AP
“I just tried to survive in the match. There is always a lot of pressure when I am here at the All England and every single day, and I got tense when my body was feeling bad and it affected my entire game,” he said.
Lin was to play Kenta Nishimoto of Japan in the second round after press time last night.
In early games yesterday involving Taiwanese, Lu Ming-che and Hung En-tzu were beaten 21-13, 21-17 by China’s Jiang Zhenbang and Huang Dongping in the second round of the mixed doubles on Court 4 at the Utilita Arena Birmingham, while Thom Gicquel and Delphine Delrue of France defeated Taiwan’s Chen Cheng-kuan and Hsu Yin-hui 19-21, 21-17, 21-14 on Court 3.
In the men’s singles, Chou Tien-chen fell to a 21-11, 21-19 defeat to China’s Shi Yuqi on Court 2. Chou beat Christo Popov 21-10, 21-12 in the first round.
Other Taiwanese to play after press time last night were: Yang Po-hsuan and Hu Ling-fang in the mixed doubles; Liu Kuang-heng and Yang Po-han, and Lee Jhe-huei and Yang Po-hsuan in the men’s doubles; Wang Tzu-wei and Lee Chia-hao in the men’s singles; Hsieh Pei-shan and Hung in the women’s doubles; and Chiu Pin-chian and Hsu Wen-chi in the women’s singles.
Taiwanese were also competing at the Spanish Para Badminton International in Toledo and the Ruichang China Masters. All three are to conclude on Sunday.
Freddie Freeman homered and drove in four runs, Shohei Ohtani also went deep and Roki Sasaki earned his first major league win as the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Atlanta Braves 10-3 on Saturday night for their seventh straight victory. The Dodgers have won the first two games of the series to improve to 5-0 against Atlanta this year. Los Angeles’ three-game sweep at home early in the season left the Braves 0-7. Sasaki allowed three runs and six hits over five innings. The 23-year-old right-hander gave up a home run to Ozzie Albies, but received plenty of offensive support in his
FOCUS: ‘We came out here with a goal in mind ... to keep our foot on their throat and on their neck, and continue to play 48 minutes of basketball,’ Donovan Mitchell said The Cleveland Cavaliers on Monday thrashed the Miami Heat to cruise into the next round of the NBA playoffs as the Golden State Warriors battled past the Houston Rockets 109-106 to move to the brink of a series victory. After pounding Miami 124-87 in game three on Saturday, No.1 Eastern Conference seeds Cleveland once again piled on the misery for their outclassed opponents with a crushing 138-83 victory to complete a 4-0 series win. The 55-point drubbing was the largest series-clinching victory in NBA playoff history and sets up a series against either the Indiana Pacers or Milwaukee Bucks in
Bayern Munich on Sunday were crowned German champions for the 34th time, giving striker Harry Kane his first major trophy, after second-placed Bayer 04 Leverkusen drew 2-2 at SC Freiburg. Bayern’s 3-3 draw at RB Leipzig on Saturday, when the Bavarians came from two goals down to take the lead before conceding a stoppage-time equalizer, meant defending Bundesliga champions Leverkusen needed to win at Freiburg to delay the title party. Leverkusen were two goals down before scoring twice in the final 10 minutes, but Xabi Alonso’s side could not find a third, as Bayern reclaimed the title at the first attempt after
Shuttler Lin Chun-yi yesterday kept Taiwan on the board as they faced their first major challenge of the group stage after marching into the last eight at the Sudirman Cup Finals in Xiamen, China. Taiwan were losing 3-1 to South Korea as of press time last night, with only the men’s doubles match remaining. Taiwan and four-time champions South Korea have already progressed to the quarter-finals, after Taiwan on Monday blanked the Czech Republic 5-0 without giving up a single game. Before last night’s tie, Taiwan were undefeated in Group B, with a 9-1 match record, ahead of South Korea, who, although also
RSS