Women's Singles, Preliminary Round 2
HAN, AUDINA Advance Easily
Han Jingna of the People's Republic of China and Mia AUDINA of Indonesia, both seeded in the women's singles competition of Olympic badminton, advanced easily to Saturday's third round.
HAN, the No. 5 seed, won her first game in the 11-0, 11-1 match against Hungary's Andrea ODOR on 11 straight serves. ODOR did not get a chance to serve until the second game, in which the serve changed hands just four times. The entire match was over in seven minutes.
In a slightly longer match, AUDINA defeated Sweden's Christine MAGNUSSON, 11-6, 11-1. AUDINA slipped into a No. 8 seed in the tournament when fifth-ranked LIM Xiaoqing (SWE) was forced to withdraw from the Olympic Games due to a knee injury.
Great Britain's Kelly MORGAN silenced the crowd's shouts of "SING-A-PORE! SING-A-PORE!" with an up-and-down upset of Singapore's only badminton competitor, Zarinah ABDULLAH, 12-9, 0-11, 11-3, rounding out the women's singles action for the evening. ABDULLAH was near errorless in the second game, committing just five.
Seeded Mixed Doubles Pairs Advance
All of the seeded pairs which played in the Olympic badminton mixed doubles competition Friday night advanced to the second round. They were led by top-seeded PARK Joo-Bong and RA Kyung Min of Korea, who defeated Canada's Iain SYDIE and Doris PICHE, 15-3, 15-6.
The No. 3 seed, CHEN Xingdong and PENG Xingyong, of the People's Republic of China, defeated Switzerland's Thomas WAPP and Santi WIBOWO, 15-5, 15-2. Fourth-seeded LIU Jianjun and SUN Man (CHN) another Canadian pair, Anil KAUL and Sian DENG, 15-12, 15-3. China's TAO Xiaoqiang and WANG Xiaoyuan, the No. 7 seed, rolled over Australia's Murray HOCKING and Lisa CAMPBELL, 15-5, 15-4, while eighth-seeded Michael SOGAARD and Rikke OLSEN of Denmark defeated Ukraine's Vladislav DRUZCHENKO and Victoria EVTOUSHENKO with a pair of 15-5 games.
But the most decisive victory did not come at the hands of a seeded pair. Denmark's Christian JAKOBSEN and Lotte OLSEN trounced Nigeria's Kayode AKINSANYA and Obigali OLORUNSOLA, 15-1, 15-2.
Other winners were Sweden's Jan-Eric ANTONSSON and Astrid CRABO, 15-4, 15-12 over Eddy CLARISSE and Marie-Josephe JEAN-PIERRE (MRI); Ron MICHELS and Erica VAN DEN HEUVEL (NED) over Todor VELKOV and Neli NEDJALKOVA (BUL), 15-4, 15-6; Australia's Peter BLACKBURN and Rhonda CATOR over Mikhail KORCHOUK and Vlada TCHERNIAVSKAIA (BLR), 18-14, 15-9; Peter AXELSSON and Catrine BENGTSSON (SWE) over Chris HUNT and Joanne MUGGERIDGE (GBR), 15-5, 15-8; and Canada's Darryl YUNG and Denyse JULIEN over Australia's Paul STEVENSON and Amanda HARDY, 15-9, 15-3.
HOYER-LARSEN, ARBI and LEE Round Out Men's Singles Quarterfinals Field
As expected, Denmark's Poul-Erik HOYER-LARSEN, Indonesia's Heryanto ARBI and Korea's LEE Kwang Jin joined the other seeded men's singles players in advancing to Sunday's men's badminton singles quarterfinals.
HOYER-LARSEN, the No. 2 seed in the tournament, won a hard-fought match against Malaysia's ONG Ewe Hock, 17-14, 15-9. Third-seeded ARBI dominated LIU En-Horng of Chinese Taipei, 15-0, 15-7; and LEE, the eighth seed, defeated Canada's Iain SYDIE, 15-8, 15-12.
In the quarterfinals, HOYER-LARSEN will face defending gold medalist, Allen BUDI KASUMA (INA) and ARBI will face LEE.
MIZUI, BORG, KIM and PLUNGWECH Advance; BORG Upsets JAROENSIRI
Margit BORG of Sweden pulled off her second upset of the tournament, defeating Thailand's Somharuthai JAROENSIRI, 11-3, 7-11, 11-5. BORG was ranked 52nd in the latest release by the IBF, while JAROENSIRI was ranked 22nd. In the first round of competition, BORG upset Bulgaria's Neli NEDJALKOVA.
The rest of the women's singles matches of the session were quick, easy wins for the higher-ranked player. Thailand's Pornsawan PLUNGWECH defeated JENG Shwu-Zen of Chinese Taipei in a 13-minute, 11-5, 11-0 match. PLUNGWECH was errorless in the second game. Seventh-seeded KIM Ji Hyun of Korea rolled over France's Sandra DIMBOUR, 11-2, 11-3; and Japan's Hisako MIZUI joined her sister, Yasuko MIZUI, in the third-round field by defeating Russian Elena RYBKHINA, 11-1, 11-8.
PONTING/WRIGHT Win First-ever Mixed Doubles Match; FLANDY/RISEU Upset ARCHER/BRADBURY
Great Britain's Nick PONTING and Joanne WRIGHT will go down in the history books as the first-ever winners in an Olympic mixed-gender sport. Yachting is the only other Olympic sport in which teams may consist of both men and women, but the teams do not have to be mixed.
PONTING and WRIGHT won a tough 15-10, 18-14 match against Germany's Michael KECK and Karen STECHMANN. However, British badminton fans undoubtedly have mixed feelings about the afternoon's results. Their top mixed doubles team, sixth-seeded Simon ARCHER and Julie BRADBURY, were upset by Indonesia's team of Nimpele FLANDY and Rosalina RISEU, 15-5, 15-6.
In other mixed doubles action, fifth-seeded KIM Dong Moon and GIL Young Ah of Korea defeated Hong Kong's HE Tim and CHAN Oi Ni, 15-6, 15-10; Indonesia's Trikus HERYANTO and Minari TIMUR, the No. 2 seed, defeated Nickolaj ZUEV and Marina YAKUSHEVA (RUS), 15-6, 15-6; and Denmark's Jens ERIKSEN and Helene KIRKEGAARD beat Stephan BEEHARRY and Martine DE SOUZA (MRI), 15-6, 15-8.
Top Seeds Advance to Quarterfinals
All of the seeded men's singles players competing Friday morning won, advancing to Sunday's quarterfinals. While none of the top players at the tournament have faced much of a threat in the first round, Indonesia's Joko SUPRIANTO and China's DONG Jiong learned that not every match will be an easy win.
SUPRIANTO, the top seed, fell behind in the first game against Sweden's Jens OLSSON, 6-10, before climbing back on top to win 15-11. The second game closely mirrored the first game, with SUPRIANTO building a 10-6 lead before losing ground. OLSSON rallied to within one point, and the two struggled for control. SUPRIANTO eventually won, 15-12.
Fourth-seeded DONG won the first game easily, 15-6, but Denmark's Thomas STUER-LAURIDESEN came on strong in the second game. STUER-LAURIDSEN kept the game fairly close and then tied the score at 13-13. DONG set the game at 5 points and won, 18-15.
In the other matches, seventh-seeded Rashid SIDEK (MAS) dominated YU Lizhi (CHN), 15-2, 15-2; Indonesia's Allan BUDI KASUMA, the No. 6 seed, rolled over SUN Jun (CHN), 15-5, 15-6, and fifth-seeded PARK Sung Woo of Korea defeated Japan's Fumihiko MACHIDA, 15-5, 15-9.
Women's Singles Second-Round Matches Start with a BANG
One-sided matches became the standard Friday morning as the second round of women's Olympic badminton singles competition began. Korea's BANG Soo Hyun, seeded third in the tournament, led the way, crushing Nigeria's Obigeli OLORUNSOLA, 11-0, 11-0. The match lasted just 10 minutes.
Susi SUSANTI (INA), the 1992 women's Olympic badminton singles gold medalist, and teammate Yuliani SENTOSO both turned in 11-1, 11-3 victories. SUSANTI, the No. 2 seed, defeated Doris PICHE of Canada, while SENTOSO eliminated Denmark's Anne SONDERGAARD.
The notable exception from the one-sided trend was HUANG Chia-Chi's (TPE) 9-11, 11-5, 11-1 defeat of Canada's Denyse JULIEN.
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