Vietnam Open 2011 badminton results

The Vietnam Open badminton tournament (officially known as the Yonex Sunrise Vietnam Grand Prix Open 2011) is currently being played at Ho Chih Minh City in Vietnam.

In the men's singles event, local boy Tien Minh Nguyen of Vietnam who is currently ranked No.7 in the world, is the top seed, followed by Sho Sasaki of Japan.

The Indian badminton players who are participating in the tournament are as below:

Women's Singles event: Aditi Mutatkar, Arundhati Pantawane, PV Sindhu
Men's Singles event: Ajay Jayaram, RMV Guru Sai Dutt, Sourabh Verma, HS Prannoy
Men's Doubles: Jishnu Sanyal & Manu Attri,
Women's Doubles: Aparna Balan & N. Sikki Reddy
Mixed Doubles: Aparna Balan & Arun Vishnu

The Vietnam open 2011 results for India have been quite good so far.

Women's Singles results: Stunners from Aditi & Arundhati in first round

Aditi Mutatkar stunned the current world no.24 and 4th seeded Ai Goto of Japan 21-18 14-21 21-16 in the first round. At the same time Arundhati Pantawane stunned 5th seed and world no.25 Juan Gu of Singapore 21-18 12-21 21-14.

PV Sindhu also booked her place in the next round by defeating Shih Han Hung of Taiwan 22-24 25-23 21-19  in a thrilling match that could have gone either way.

Men's Singles results: Ajay, GuruSai progress

In the men's singles 12th seeded RMV GuruSai Dutt has reached the quarterfinals. He defeated 7th seed Jen Hao Hsu of Taiwan in the 3rd round 21-10 17-21 21-19 to reach the quarters of the Vietnam open.

5th seed Ajay Jayaram fresh from his recent performances at the World badminton championship held earlier this month, has also reached the 3rd round and will be playing against Jong Woo Yim of Korea for a place in the quarterfinal round.

HS Prannoy however lost in the 2nd round against world no.32 Alamsyah Yunus of Indonesia who is seeded 4th in the tournament. Sourabh Verma lost in the first round against Yun Lung Chan of Hong Kong.

Men's and Women's Doubles results: Indian challenge ends

In the women's doubles, the Indian pair of Aparna & Sikki Reddy reached the 2nd round with ease, however could not progress any further as they were defeated by the 5th seeded Indonesian pair of Anneke Feinya Agustin / Nitya Krishinda Maheswari.

In the men's doubles, Jishnu & Manu Attri lost against Malaysian pair of Low Juan Shen / Jagdish Singh in the first round.

Mixed doubles results: Arun & Aparna reach 2nd round

The mixed doubles pair of Arun Vishnu & Aparna Balan defeated Calvin Jia Hong Ong/ Chiew Sien Lim of Malaysia 21-8, 21-14 in the first round. They are scheduled to play against Vietnamese pair of Nguyen Nhan Hoa Duong / Ngoc Quyen Phan Nguyen in the next round.

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World badminton championships 2011 results

(Note: latest important results of day2 and day3 are updated in the comments below)

The results of the first day were relatively good for India at the Yonex BWF World badminton championships 2011 being held at the Wembley Arena hall in London, UK.

Ajay Jayaram,who is one of India's top men's singles badminton player, played one of the best games of his career today, winning his first round match upsetting 15th seeded Kenichi Tago of Japan by a score of 21-12, 21-19.

The astounding fact is not only that Ajay upset Kenichi Tago, a player who is currently ranked no.18 in the world, but also the surprising ease with which he achieved this result.

In the first game, both the players were going to neck to neck till the score read 8-7 in Ajay's favour. From this point onwards Ajay broke away to take a lead winning a lot of points in succession, and maintained the momentum to pocket the first game comfortably at 21-12.

In the second game also Ajay continued in the same vein and at one stage was leading 11-2, and then later on by 18-12. However Kenichi fought back bravely after this, scoring a lot of quick points, and reduced the lead as much as 19-20. However Ajay Jayaram held on to his nerve to win the final remaining point to take the second game at 21-19, and progress further to the next round.

Jwala Gutta & Ashwini Ponnappa also opened their World badminton championship 2011 campaign on a positive note, by winning their first round match comfortably defeating the pair of Eva Lee & Paula Lynn Obanana of the USA, by a score of 21-9, 21-18, in just 23 minutes of play.

Undoubtedly inspired by these two wins, India's top men's doubles pair of Rupesh Kumar & Sanave Thomas then went on to defeat the German pair of Michael Fuchs and Oliver Roth by 9-21, 21-18, 21-17 in three tough sets, to progress to round 2 of the world badminton championships 2011.

The other Indian men's doubles pair of Pranav Chopra & Tarun Kona, however could not successfully meet the challenge of the Taiwanese pair of Hung Ling Chen/ Yu Lang Lin and were defeated 17-21, 13-21.

The other Indian players in the fray at the badminton world championships 2011 are India's top hope Saina Nehwal, P. Kashyap, and the mixed doubles pair of Jwala Gutta & V.Diju who will be playing competitive badminton after quite a long gap.

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Amongst other important results of the day, men's singles top seed Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia & Taufik Hidayat of Indonesia cruised through comfortably to the next round.

Malaysian badminton fans must be undoubtedly hoping that with the current form of Lee Chong Wei, he will finally end Malaysia's wait, and go on to become the first ever Malaysian world badminton champion.

A major upset result was seen in the men's singles on day1, as Kevin Cordon of Guatemala dashed 5th seeded Chinese player Chen Long's world championship title hopes, defeating him in a nailbiting finish 21-19 8-21 27-25.

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Badminton World Championship 2011 to start soon

The BWF badminton world championship 2011 tournament (officially known as the Yonex BWF World Championships 2011) will be held from the 8-Aug-2011 to 14-Aug-2011 at the Wembley Arena in London, UK.

The Wembley arena hall in London, is also the location where the next year's 2012 London Olympic badminton games will be held, and hence players competing for the Badminton world champion title would also be looking forward to getting acclimatised to the conditions at the hall, as a part of their Olympic games 2012 preparation.

For India, Saina Nehwal who is the main hope in this world badminton championship 2011 tournament, is seeded 6th in the tournament. Saina is also currently ranked at no.6 in the BWF world rankings which are updated every week.

Decent Draw for Saina Nehwal

The draws for the world badminton championships 2011 have been released, and Saina has got a bye in the first round and in the 2nd round will be facing the winner of the match between world no.53 Chloe Magee of Ireland and world no.31 Adrianti Firdasari of Indonesia. Adrianti who is likely to move ahead to the second round is a dangerous opponent who has the potential to upset any top player, and Saina cannot afford to be complacent if she is matched against Adrianti in the 2nd round.

In case Saina manages to get past the 2nd round, she could potentially play against 14th seed Pui Yin Pip of Hong Kong in the 3rd round. The subsequent challenges are even tougher for Saina. She could potentially be matched against 3rd seed Xin Wang in the quarterfinals, 2nd seed Yihan Wang in the semi-finals, and the top seed Shixian Wang in the final match which will decide who the 2011 Badminton world champion will be.

However all this potential tie-ups based on seedings is just hypothetical, and in reality all these top players who are playing at the badminton world championships have the potential to beat any of the other players on their good day. Much will depend on how players actually perform during the big matches. This is where temperament plays so crucial a role.

Indian challengers in the men's singles event - Ajay Jayaram and P. Kashyap

Amongst the men, the Indian contenders for the world championship title are Ajay Jayaram and P. Kashyap, who are currerntly ranked at no. 35 and no. 28 respectively in the world badminton rankings. Ajay is drawn to play against 15th seed Kenichi Tago of Japan in the first round, while Kashyap will be opening his world campaign with his match against Dieter Domke of Germany.

Indian challenge in the doubles sections at the BWF world badminton championships 2011:

Rupesh Kumar & Sanave Thomas currently ranked no.34 in the world rankings would be spearheading India's challenge in the mens doubles section. They will be playing against the no.29 ranked German pair of Michael Fuchs & Oliver Roth in the first round.

The other Indian doubles pair in the fray is Pranav Chopra & Tarun Kona ranked no.74 in the world rankings, who have got an entry into the tournament. They will be playing against the Taiwanese pair of Hung Ling CHEN & Yu Lang LIN in their opening encounter.

In the women's doubles, Jwala Gutta & Ashwini Ponnappa will clash against Eva Lee & Paula Lynn Obanana of the USA in the first round. If they clear this test, they will potentially be up against the 2nd seeded pair of Wen Hsing CHENG & Yu Chin CHIEN of Taiwan.

In the mixed doubles event, India's top pair of Jwala Gutta & V.Diju is seeded 16th in the tournament and have got a decent draw with a first round bye. Diju has been out in action for quite some time now (since the CWG games in Dec-2010 which he decided to skip for getting treated for a back injury). It would be interesting to see how the pair performs after such a long break from competitive match play.

All eyes will be on the World no. 1 - Lee Chong Wei

In the men's section, Malaysian badminton fans would be eagerly looking forward to the performance of their star player Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia who has a very realistic chance of becoming the first ever world badminton champion from Malaysia. He is currently in tremendous form, winning almost every tournament that he has played in the recent times.

By the way, fans are also looking forward to Lee Chong Wei's autobiography which will be released after this championships tournament is over.

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