Thursday, August 1, 2013

BWF Badminton World Championship 2013

The badminton world championship 2013 is scheduled to be held next month in August. Nearly 400 of the world's top ranked players are expected to participate in the tournament, which will be held in Guangzhou in China from 05-Aug-2013 to 11-Aug-2013.

The tournament is held once every year, and is the most prestigious tournament in the badminton world, and the winners get the honour of being officially known as the 'world champion'.

Here's the list of Indian players who will be playing at the BWF badminton world championships 2013.

Men's singles event
P Kashyap
Ajay Jayaram

Women's singles event
Saina Nehwal
PV Sindhu

Women's doubles
Ashwini Ponnappa and Pradnya Gadre
Aparna Balan and N.Sikki Reddy

Men's doubles
Tarun Kona and Arun Vishnu
Akshay Dewalkar and Pranav Chopra

This is the first time ever that India has been able to field such a big contingent of badminton players for the world championship tournament. Only the top 50 players in the world in each event are eligible to play at the tournament, and hence this strong team is an ample indication of India's growing strength in the world of badminton.

The last time that players from India had won a medal at this prestigious tournament was when Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa had won the bronze medal at the 2011 BWF badminton world championships that was held at London two years back.

Saina Nehwal has got a relatively easy draw at the championships and the first Chinese player that she is likely to play against is in the semi-finals. As per the tournament rules, all players reaching the semi-finals are assured of at least a bronze medal.


Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Indian badminton league - the teams and the players

Here's the complete list of all the teams & players that will be participating in the Indian badminton league 2013, which is scheduled to be held from 14th Aug to 31st Aug, in six cities of India.

The names of some of the IBL teams have been changed in recent days, and the IBL auction that was held a couple days ago on 22-July, has finally helped in deciding which team would consist of which players.

Here is the list of the six Indian badminton league teams, their owners, coaches, and the list of all the badminton players in each team.

IBL TEAM
Hyderabad Hotshots
Mumbai Masters
Owner
PVP Group
Consortium led by V. Chamunde-Swarnath
Coach
JR Kumar
Aparna Popat
Players list


Men's singles
Taufiq Hidayat
Lee Chong Wei

Ajay Jayaram
Marc Zwiebler

Tanongsak Saensomboonsuk




Women's singles
Saina Nehwal
Tine Baun



Men's doubles
V.Shem Goh
Pranav Chopra

Tarun Kona
Manu Attri

Khim Wah Lim
Vladimir Ivanov



Mixed doubles
Pradnya Gadre
Sikki Reddy

Shubhankar Dey
PC Thulasi

P. Kanthi Visalakshi
Sumeet Reddy


Rasika Raje





IBL Team
Pune Pistons
Delhi Smashers
Owner
Dabur Group
Krrish Group
Coach
Nikhil Kanetkar
Rashid Sidek
Player list


Men's singles
Tien Minh Nguyen
Wing Ki Wong

Saurabh Verma
HS Prannoy

Anup Sridhar
Sai Praneeth

Joachim Fischer Nielson




Women's singles
Juliane Schenk
Arundhati Pantawane


Nichaon Jindapon



Men's doubles
Rupesh Kumar
Boon Hoeng Tan

Sanave Thomas
Kien Keat Koo

Wee Kiong Tan
V Diju


Mixed doubles
Ashwini Ponappa
Jwala Gutta

Arun Vishnu
Prajakta Sawant




IBL Team
Banga Beats
Lucknow Warriors
Owner
BOP Group
Sahara India Pariwar
Coach
Vimal Kumar
Muhammad Hafiz Hashim
Player list


Men's singles
Parupalli Kashyap
Weng Fei Chong

Hu Yun
RMV Guru Sai Dutt


K Srikanth



Women's singles
Tzu Ying Tai
PV Sindhu

Carolina Marin
T. Sapsiree


Ruthvika Shiwani



Men's doubles
Arvind Bhat
Marcis Kido

Aditya Prakash
Maneepong Jongjit

Akshay Dewalkar


Carsten Morgensen



Mixed doubles
Aparna Balan
K Maneesha

J Meghana
Nanda Gopal Kidambi





As you can notice in the tabulated list given above, each of the teams has 6 Indian players, and 4 foreign players along-with at least one Indian junior badminton player.

The Indian badminton league is scheduled to be played in the six cities, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Delhi, Lucknow, Pune and Bangalore, and the tournament will have home and away matches for each of these six teams.

The IBL opening ceremony will he held in Delhi, the semi-finals matches in Bangalore and Hyderabad and the finals will he played on 31-Aug-2013 in Mumbai.


Friday, July 19, 2013

Sunil Gavaskar becomes a part of Indian badminton league

Cricket's one and only little master Sunil Gavaskar along with Telugu actor Nagarjuna, are reported to have become stakeholders in the Mumbai team that will participate in the IBL (Indian badminton league) tournament that is going to be held next month from 14th to 30th Aug-2013.

In my opinion, this is great news for the badminton scenario in India. Both Gavaskar as well as Nagarjuna's involvement with the IBL will make the matches more newsworthy for newspaper publications as well as the TV channels who keenly follow everything that happens in the world of films and filmstars , and in the world of cricket and cricketers.

And with cricketers of such merit as Gavaskar showing his interest in the game, badminton will get more than the share of media attention that it usually receives. This in turn will attract more people to watch the Indian badminton league, and some of them could then become ardent followers of badminton, if the matches and the tournament delivers on its promise of some really nice high-voltage action.

But that benefit is only the tip of the iceberg. Gavaskar can offer so much more to the game, and badminton players can learn a lot from him.

In my opinion, he is a man of multiple talents and has acute observational skills. I still recollect how he once mimicked the bowling styles of players such as Abdul Kadir and Malcom Marshall in an over that he once bowled, a long time ago.

And I also distinctly remember about how he once mentioned of his experiments with holding the bat very gingerly in his hands while facing fast bowlers. He said that initially the bat got knocked out of his hands, but soon he was able to hold it without dropping it, and the opponents were astounded at how even the fastest of balls started dropping dead at his feet when coming in contact with the bat. He was truly a master at defence, in his days.

The reason I am going down this memory lane, is because badminton could do with the same kind of insights and experimentation. Well, players and coaches maybe doing it all the time, but even if they do, that kind of information does not ever reach the ears of badminton fans.

Also, at least once, I would love to hear Sunil Gavaskar lending his expert commentary to a badminton match someday. If not that maybe he could at least pass on a few good tips to those who are doing the commenting.

Even before IBL, Gavaskar has been involved with the sport of badminton for some time now and Nagarjuna's foray into badminton is not very surprising either. He is a Telugu actor who I believe is based in Hyderabad, and as all of us badminton followers know, Hyderabad is the hub of badminton activity in India, largely due to Gopichand's academy which is based there.

To add to this celebrity duo, Aamir Khan (who is a good badminton player) and Deepika Padukone (who has a badminton background, being the daughter of Prakash Padukone) are going to be the brand ambassadors for the Indian badminton league.

All things considered, the future of Indian badminton looks better than ever before.


Sunday, July 14, 2013

Yonex OCBC US Open 2013 badminton tournament - results


The 2013 Yonex OCBC US Open Grand Prix Gold badminton championship tournament that was being played at Orange County at California in USA, came to a close today. The senior international championship being held at the same venue will conclude on 14th-July.

Here's a look at some of the results.
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Men's Singles event

Tien Minh Nguyen of Vietnam who was the 3rd seed at this tournament clinched the title defeating 4th seeded Wing Ki Wong of Hong Kong by a score of 18-21, 21-17, 21-18.

Boonsak Ponsana of Thailand who had started this US-Open 2013 badminton tournament as the top seed, alongwith Japanese player Kento Momota were the other losing semi-finalists.

There was very less Indian representation at the US Open in this year. Amongst those who had participated, Anup Sridhar lost in his first match itself and could not progress beyond the first round, while Arvind Bhat managed to do a bit better winning his opening match, but then lost his way in the second round when he was defeated by 15th seeded Henri HursKainen of Sweden in two straight games.

---

Women's Singles event

Sapisree Taerattanchai of Thailand won the gold medal in the women's singles event at the US Open-2013. She defeated Yuka Kusunose from Japan, in the final match by a score of  21-12, 21-13.

Top seeded Nichaon Jindapon of Thailand and Kaori Imabeppu of Japan, were the other semi-finalists.
There were no Indian players participating in the women's events.

----

Doubles events.

The women's doubles final was an all Chinese-match. While China bagged the top two positions (gold and silver), the next two positions (losing semifinalists) were both from Japan.

However in the mixed doubles final match, Hong Kong got the better of China in the final, to win the gold medal.
In the men's doubles final, top seeded Japanese pair of Takeshi Kamura and Keigo Sonoda won the gold medal.

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The US open-2013 is conducted every year by OCBC (Orange County Badminton Club) which is situated at Orange County in California, USA.

The club also offers short term and long term group training programs to selected participants who get a chance to learn badminton from well-known badminton coaches.

External references:
http://tournamentsoftware.com
http://ocbadmintonclub.com


Friday, July 5, 2013

Indian badminton league in Aug-2013


Expectations are rising high as the first ever Indian badminton league date draws nearer. The competition will be held from 14-Aug to 31-Aug-2013, starting with the opening ceremony at Delhi and culminating with the finals that will be held in Mumbai.

The presence of all the top-level Indian badminton players as well as top-ranked overseas players is going to ensure that the competition play will be of a very high level. For Indian badminton fans this is a good opportunity to watch the world's best players in action in their home-towns.

The competition is going to have 6 teams, and will be played using a franchise model similar to the one followed in Cricket's IPL league. Each team will have a total of 12 players that will include a maximum of 4 foreign players from top badminton playing countries such as Malaysia, China, Indonesia, Korea and Denmark.

And here's the list of the six IBL teams that will be competing for the prize money which is over Rs.5 crore.

Mumbai Masters
Karnataka Kings
Hyderabad Hotshots
Rajdhani Smashers
Pune Vijetas
Lucknow Warriors

By the way, don't these team names sound similar to their IPL counterparts in cricket?
If you are like me, no doubt at one point or another you must have wondered why Hyderabad cannot be called just as the Hyderabad team and Mumbai just as the Mumbai team.

The matches will be conducted in these 6 cities in the form of home-and-away matches for each of the teams in the 3-week long tournament.

And yes, the Indian badminton league finally seems to have caught the attention of the cricket-crazy media of our country. Newspapers reported that Sachin Tendulkar was interested in buying the Mumbai Masters team, and now I am hearing that Sunil Gavaskar will also be involved in the tournament in some way or the other.

Bollywood has not been left behind either. It's been reported that Aamir Khan, whom I admire, and who apart from being a great actor is a good badminton player is going to be one of the brand ambassadors. The other ambassador for the event is going to be badminton legend Prakash Padukone's little girl Deepika.

There is going to be a fair amount of money involved in the league as a lot of heavy-weight companies have shown interest in buying the franchise teams. Companies such as Dabur, PVP, and Sahara have already got the teams they want.

The base price for each teams had been pegged at Rs.6 crore. That's big money when it comes to badminton. The players are also going to be richer with the top 5 from each team earning 50000 US dollars and the next 5 earning half of that.

Check out this link for more info: http://www.iblschedule.com/ about Indian badminton league.

A good news for us badminton-fans is that all the badminton matches are going to be telecast live on Star Sports.

So here's wishing Indian badminton league a great success!


Sunday, June 9, 2013

K. Srikanth wins SCG Thailand Open 2013 badminton tournament


Promising young badminton player K. Srikanth of India, won his first ever major international title today, winning the gold medal in the men's singles event at the SCG Thailand Open-2013 Grand Prix Gold badminton tournament, held at the Nimibutr stadium at Bangkok in Thailand from 04-June-2013 to 09-June-2013.

Before the start of the men's singles final, not many would have expected such a surprising outcome. After all, the experienced Boonsak Ponsana is ranked no.7 in the world and was the top seed at this tournament. On top of that, playing at the Thai Open final, meant that he would get plenty of support from the home crowd.
On the other hand, Srikanth's world ranking was no.45 at the start of the tournament (and current ranking is no.61) and he was seeded 13th here at this tournament. A big difference, so to speak.

However as it eventually turned out, Kidambi Srikanth defeated Boonsak Ponsana in the finals in just 33 minutes and two straight games by a score of 21-16, 21-12 to clinch his first ever GP Gold title, and a well-deserved prize cheque worth 9000 US dollars, to go along with it.

20-year old Srikanth is from Hyderabad, represents Andhra Pradesh state at the domestic tournaments in India, and is currently ranked no.3 within India as per the rankings published by BAI (Badminton Association of India). On the international level, he has made rapid progress in the last 6 months, first breaking into the top 100 and then into the list of top 50 players in the world.


Women's Singles results:

Saina disappoints this time

Top seeded Saina Nehwal could not repeat her last year's performance this time around at the Thailand Open-2013. She was defeated in the quarter-finals by 8th seed Juan Gu of Singapore.

Last year Saina had done better at this tournament when she had went on to win the title defeating Ratchanok Inthanon in the finals. Here's the link to her previous year's performance at this tournament.
  Saina wins Thailand Open 2012 badminton tournament.

Inthanon grabs the title at Thailand Open badminton 2013

The women's singles title at the Thailand Open 2013 was won by Ratchanok Inthanon of Thailand who defeated her own country-mate Busanan Ongbumrungpan in the tough final match that lasted for 3 games. Inthanon finally won by a score of 20-22, 21-19, 21-13.
So, she has done one step better this time. Last year it was Silver for her, and this time it's a Gold medal.





Sunday, December 23, 2012

Kashyap wins India Grand Prix Gold 2012 title

Parupalli Kashyap of India scripted a fine victory today in the finals of the men's singles event at the Shaheed Dr. K.L. Garg - Syed Modi International India GPG 2012 badminton tournament that was held at Lucknow in India from 18-Dec to 23-Dec-2012.

P.Kashyap, who is currently ranked no.20 in the world badminton rankings, and who was seeded 2nd in this tournament defeated 14th seeded Tanongsak Saensomboonsuk of Thailand in the final match. The match lasted for 3 games, with the final scoreline reading 21-19, 14-21, 21-17 in Kashyap's favour. Earlier in the semi-finals Kashyap had overcome another stiff challenge from Indonesian Tommy Sugiarto and had won that match in straight sets 21-18, 23-21.

The other Indian player who was in contention for the gold medal at the India Grand Gold Prix badminton tournament, P.V. Sindhu, however lost in the final match of the women's singles event. 7th seeded Lindaweni Fanetri of Indonesia defeated 2nd seeded Sindhu in the finals by a score of 21-15, 18-21, 21-18.

PV Sindhu, one of India's best upcoming badminton talent, is currently ranked no.24 in the world badminton rankings and holds the no.7 spot in the junior rankings. She had her career best victory just a couple of months back in Sep-2012 at the Li Ning Masters tournament in China, where she had defeated the world.no.1 and reigning Olympics 2012 badminton champion Le Xuerui of China.

Earlier in the first round of this year's India grand prix, Saina Nehwal had backed out of the tournament citing a knee injury, when she was leading at match-point. However overall the India Grand Prix Gold 2012 home tournament has turned out to be good outing for the Indian camp, with a haul of two medals, a gold medal in the men's singles and a silver in the women's singles event.

Saturday, October 27, 2012

French Open 2012 badminton: Saina Nehwal reaches Semi-finals

Saina Nehwal has continued her great form from the previous Denmark Open tournament, and has reached the semi-finals of the French Open 2012 badminton tournament that is being held at Paris, France from 23 to 28 October 2012.

However the win in the quarter-finals was not easy, as Saina barely managed to get past the world no.10, 17-year old Ratchanok Inthanon in a very closely contested match, defeating her Thai opponent by a score of 22-20, 22-20.

Saina Nehwal, who is the top seed for this tournament, will next be playing in the semi-finals against 4th seeded Juliane Schenk of Germany, whom she had defeated only last week in the finals of the Denmark Open tournament. Saina has also notched the no.3 spot in the BWF world badminton rankings after her title win last week.

In the other women's singles semi-final will Eriko Hirose of Japan will be taking on fellow Japanese player Minatsu Mitani.

Three of China's best women badminton players, Yihan Wang, Li Xuerui and Xin Wang are not playing in this tournament, and second seeded Shixian Wang has already been knocked out of the tournament having lost to Eriko Hirose of Japan earlier.



Monday, October 22, 2012

Saina Nehwal wins Denmark Open - 2012 badminton title

Saina had been away from competitive badminton since the last couple of months after her bronze medal winning performance at the London Olympics in Aug-2012. Given the fanfare that followed, the rewards and recognition ceremonies, the new sponsorship deals, and the two-month break, Indian badminton fans must have been wondering how she would perform at the Denmark Open super series where the world's top players had taken part. Would she still have the drive left in her to win the big matches? Will she be fitter than her opponents? However Saina has effectively put all such doubts to rest by doing what she does best. By winning!

Come this Sunday, and Saina Nehwal made her champion presence felt once again as she won the Denmark Open - 2012 super series badminton championship title by defeating Juliane Schenk of Germany in the finals by a score of 21-17, 21-8. It was Juliane who had earlier defeated reigning Olympic Gold medallist Xuerei Li of China in the quarter-finals.

Earlier in the semi-finals, Saina achieved an all-important victory over her arch-rival and nemesis from China, the world no.1 Yihan Wang. This was the seventh time they were facing each other and Saina had lost all the previous 6 matches against her. However this time round, Saina was able to reverse her fortunes and defeated Wang by a score of 21-12, 21-7 (retired). Wang seemed to have injured her right knee during the second game of the match.

With the win in the finals, Saina has become only the second Indian badminton player to have ever won the Denmark Open badminton title. She has now emulated the feat of Prakash Padukone, former Indian badminton star, who more than 30 years ago, in 1980, had won this prestigious title.


Saturday, October 20, 2012

Saina Nehwal reaches semis of Denmark Open 2012

London Olympics bronze medallist Saina Nehwal playing in her first international tournament after her medal winning performance at the 2012 Olympics, has reached the semi-finals of the Yonex Denmark Open-2012 Super series badminton tournament that is being held at Odense in Denmark from 16-Oct to 21-Oct-2012.

Saina who is currently ranked no.4 in the world badminton rankings, will be taking on the world's no.1 player and top seed of the tournament Yihan Wang of China in the semi-finals. The previous match between these two players was the 2012 Olympics semi-finals in August, where Yihan had halted Saina's progress to the finals defeating her 21-13, 21-13. The two have played against each other 6 times since 2010, and Yihan has won all those 6 matches.

Given the head to head statistics it would be interesting to see how Saina approaches this game following her long break from badminton since the Olympic games, and whether she has any new tactics to counter the world no.1 Chinese player.

In the men's singles event at the Denmark Open-2012, the Indian challenge came to an early end, with Anand Pawar and Ajay Jayaram losing their first round matches, and while Sourabh Verma showed great promise defeating the world no.8 and 6th seeded Peter Gade in the first round, he had to face defeat in the next round against Indonesian player Sony Kuncoro.

In the men's doubles the Indian pair of Tarun Kona and Arun Vishnu lost in the first round, while in the mixed doubles, the pair of Tarun Kona and Ashwini Ponnappa met with the same fate and could not get past the first round.

Thursday, October 4, 2012

P.Kashyap and Sayali Gokhale win National badminton titles

Parupalli Kashyap went on the become India's new National badminton champion after he defeated Ajay Jayaram of Mumbai in the men's singles finals of the 77th Senior National Badminton Championship-2012 that was held at Srinagar from 26th September to 03rd October 2012.

In the final match, Kashyap defeated Ajay in two straight games with a score of 21-18, 21-17. A couple of months earlier, Kashyap had narrowly edged past Ajay to clinch a berth at the London Olympic Games. Kashyap had also performed well at the Olympics reaching the quarter-finals though his medal hopes were finally dashed when he lost against Malaysia's star player Lee Chong Wei.

It was a dream come true for Kashyap as this is first time that he has won the National Badminton Championship title.

In the Women's Singles badminton event, 2008 National badminton champion Sayali Gokhale managed to get past India's rising badminton star P.V.Sindhu to win the title back again.

P.V.Sindhu who has taken rapid strides recently at the World badminton level is currently ranked no.20 in the world having recently won the Asian Youth Championship title. Just last month she even pulled off a stunning victory against  London Olympic Gold Medallist Le Xuerei of China at the Li Ning Masters tournament in China. Compared to Sindhu, Sayali Gokhale is ranked a modest 131 in the world and given the recent performances it was Sindhu who was expected to win.

However Sindhu who was playing wearing a knee brace was apparently not fully fit for the game and seemed to have injured herself earlier in this tournament. Sayali made good use of her experience and put up a fine performance to make the maximum of this opportunity and to earn her second National badminton title. Sayali defeated Sindhu by a score of 21-15, 15-21, 21-15.

In the badminton doubles events, Aparna Balan earned double titles winning in the women's doubles as well as the mixed doubles.

In the women's doubles Aparna and N. Sikki Reddy won against the second seeded pair of Varsha Belawadi and G.M. Nischitha by a score of 21-11, 21-13. In the mixed doubles event, the top seeded pair of Aparna Balan and Arun Vishnu defeated Ashwini Ponnappa and Tarun K. in the final match by a score of 21-13 18-21 21-15.

In the men's doubles event, Manu Attri and B.Sumeeth Reddy won the title defeating the 3rd seeded pair of Akshay Dewalkar and Pranav Chopra by a score of 10-21 21-14 21-12.

77th National Badminton Championship 2012 - Title Winners:

Men's Singles: Parupalli Kashyap
Women's Singles: Sayali Gokhale
Men's Doubles: Manu Attri and B. Sumeeth Reddy
Women's Doubles: Aparna Balan and Sikki Reddy N.
Mixed Doubles: Aparna Balan and Arun Vishnu





Sunday, June 17, 2012

Saina Nehwal wins Indonesia Open 2012

Saina Nehwal of India defeated 4th seeded Xuerui Li of China in a pulsating final match of the women's singles event, to win the Djarum Indonesia Open 2012 badminton title for the third time in her career.

The Indonesia Open 2012 Super Series Premier badminton tournament is being held at Jakarta in Indonesia from 12th-17th June 2012.

Saina Nehwal vs. Xuerui Li  - Head to Head


Li Xuerui, Saina's opponent in the finals was ranked no.3 in the world, while Saina holds a current world ranking of no.5. Before today's encounter the two had played against each other 5 times, in which Saina had a dismal record of 1-4. To add to this Xuerui had not lost a single match since Jan-2012 winning 30 matches in a row with 4 consecutive titles wins. And those 30 straight wins were all against formidable opponents including 3 consecutive wins over world no.1 Yihan Wang.

On the other hand, there were some plus points for Saina too. One is she holds a fantastic record at the Indonesia Open super series badminton tournament, having won the title in 2009 and 2010, and the silver medal in 2011. She also gets good crowd support from the Indonesian badminton fans. To add to this she had reached to play at the Indonesia Open tournament fresh with a title win under her belt, having won the Thailand Open title just a week ago.

The final match
Given these track records, the final match promised much excitement for badminton fans worldwide, and they were not disappointed at all. While Xuerui Li won the first game 21-13, and looked all set to win the title, Saina fought back from the brink to win the second game 22-20 to bring the match on an even note once again. And then Saina controlled her nerves better in the last game 21-19 to pocket the Indonesia Open title once again in her career.

Saina Nehwal won the final match defeating Xuerui Li with a score of 13-21, 22-20, 21-19.

Earlier in the semi-finals of the Indonesia Open 2012, Saina had defeated world no.10 Ji Hyun Sung of Korea in straight sets, while in the men's singles P. Kashyap's dream run ended when he lost to world no.9 Simon Santoso of Indonesia. He will be participating in the Singapore Open tournament next.

Very creditable win for Saina
All the top 10 women badminton players in the world had participated at the Indonesia Open 2012 super series badminton tournament and were vying to win the title. Saina Nehwal's title win today amidst such tough competition should give much hope to Indian badminton fans who will be cheering for her and India, at the London Olympics that will soon be held in August.

Related Posts


Saina and Kashyap in semifinals of Indonesia Open 2012 badminton
Kashyap shines at Indonesia Open 2012

Saina Nehwal's silver medal finish at Indonesia Open last year
Indonesia Open 2011 badminton - Last year's results



Friday, June 15, 2012

Saina and Kashyap storm into semi-finals of Indonesian Open 2012 badminton tournament



It was another great day for India at the Indonesian Open-2012 Super Series Premier badminton tournament, with Saina Nehwal and P.Kashyap of India giving Indian badminton fans a lot of cheer about as they stormed into the semi-finals of the prestigious tourney.

World no.5 Saina Nehwal defeated arch rival and world no.4 Shixian Wang of China in a hard fought match by a score of 21-17 21-23 21-19. With this win, Saina improved her career record against Shixian Wang taking it to 3 wins compared to 1 loss against her Chinese opponent.

Saina will next be playing against world no.10 Sung Ji Hyun of Korea who defeated 2nd seeded and world no.2 Xin Wang of China. Saina has a career record of 3-0 against Sung Ji Hyun, however the two haven't had a chance to play against each other since the last 1 year.

Meanwhile there was even more to cheer about for the Indian fans in the men's singles as P.Kashyap of India who had stunned top seed and world no.3 Chen Long of China in the 2nd round, continued with his dream run at the Djarum Indonesia Open-2012 badminton tournament and overcame the challenge of Hans-Kristian Vittinghus of Denmark defeating him 21-15 21-14.

With this result Kashyap has now reached the semi-finals of the Indonesian open, and he will next be playing against world no.9 Simon Santoso of Indonesia. Simon holds a career head to head record of 3-0 against Kashyap, and he is also likely to have the added advantage of getting the home support from the local crowd, however Kashyap seems to be in great form and the match will be interesting to watch.


Related Posts:

P.Kashyap shines at Indonesian Open-2012.