Sunday, August 16, 2009

Xie stuns top seed Zhou to enter semis

Hyderabad, Aug 14: China’s Xie Xingfang knocked out top seed Zhou Mi of Hong Kong 21-15 21-18 to move into the semi-finals of the women’s singles at the the World Badminton Championships here on Friday.
It was a day of surprise results as women's seventh seed Lan Lu of China stunned third-seeded Dane Tine Rasmussen 21-15, 21-13 in 31 minutes to enter the semi-finals. Fifth seed Xie’s opponent in the semi-final is France's eighth seed Pi Hongyan, who defeated 11th seed Juliane Schenk of Germany 15-21, 21-15, 21-19 in an hour-long duel. Pi, who moved to France after failing to make it to the Chinese national team, said it was her best performance in the world championships. “I can’t say how happy I am today. This is my best performance in the World Championhips. I am having a good time here,” said Pi, who has been a quarter-finalist for three consecutive years between 2005-07 at the World Championships. In the men’s singles, Indonesian fourth seed and Athens Olympics gold medallist Taufiq Hidayat stopped the giant-killing run of unseeded Dane Jan O Jorgensen 21-19, 21-19, to enter the semi-finals. Jorgensen, 21, had upset South Korean eighth seed Park Sung-hwan and 16th seed Boonsak Ponsana of Thailand in the previous two rounds, and made it tough for Hidayat before bowing out. In the semi-final, Hidayat takes on Chinese second seed Chen Jin, who beat Indonesia's Simon Santoso 21-10, 21-13. (IANS)

No comments: