Friday, May 05, 2006

Heartbreak for Malaysia

Tokyo, 5 May: It was heartbreak for Malaysia as Denmark pulled off the last rubber of their semifinal tie to run into China for the Thomas Cup. China, meanwhile, thrashed Indonesia in their semifinal and look well set to take both the Thomas and Uber Cup.

Malaysia, who were reckoned to be the most potent threat to China during their run-up to the semis, missed the services of the injured Wong Choon Hann, and Denmark made that count as Joachim Persson won the fifth match against Kuan Beng Hong.

The hero of Denmark's win, was however Peter Gade, who scored a remarkable win over world No.2 Lee Chong Wei, who was looking almost unbeatable in the last few months. Gade's win took the wind out of Malaysia's sails, and they trailed right through.

Keat and Chan equalised the tie for Malaysia, beating Hansen and Eriksen 30-28 in the second and 21-6 in the third. Kenneth Jonassen then scored another big point, downing Hafiz Hashim in three tight games. Choong and Lee Wan Wah restored parity in the doubles, over Mathias Boe and Carsten Mogensen, and it was finally down to the last match. Last year's ABC finalist Kuan was expected to win the tie for his country, but faltered against Persson.

Meanwhile, the biggest story in the other semifinal was Lin Dan's hammering of Taufik Hidayat. Cai Yun and Fu Haifeng escaped a tight first game against Alven and Luluk, and Bao Chunlai nailed home the last point over Sony DK.

For complete scores click here.

Wednesday, May 03, 2006

India fail to make the grade

2 May '06
Tokyo: Denmark eased into the semifinals of the Thomas Cup, giving no quarter to India in a ruthless 3-0 finish.
A youthful Indian team could not even take a game off the European champions.
Meanwhile, China strolled into the last four and await the winners of the quarterfinal between Indonesia and Japan.

Peter Gade set things up with a comfortable 14 and 8 demolition of Chetan Anand. Kenneth Jonassen followed suit with a 11 and 12 result over Anup Sridhar, while the doubles pair of Eriksen and Hansen were briefly troubled in the second game by Diju and Rupesh Kumar, but sealed their side's win with a 14 and 19 result.

The Uber Cup saw a big upset, with Germany pulling off a 3-2 result over Hong Kong China. Although world No.3 Wang Chen put Hong Kong ahead with a three-game win over European champion Xu Huaiwen, the second and third singles let Hong Kong down.

However, China had no problems against Singapore, whipping them 3-0, with Zhang Ning opening the tie with a 18 and 18 result over Li Li.

Monday, May 01, 2006

India in last eight

1 May '06
Sendai: Anup Sridhar upset world No. 33 John Moody as India whitewashed New Zeland 3-0 to storm into the quarterfinals of the World badminton men’s team championship for the Thomas Cup here on Monday.

India, missing its number one shuttler Chetan Anand to injury, sealed the victory in an emphatic fashion with Sridhar, Arvind Bhat, and Nikhil Kanetkar winning the three singles matches in the five-match pre-quarterfinal tie.

The two inconsequential doubles matches were not played. India now take on Denmark, who reached the last eight stage after topping group C, for a place in the quarterfinals to be played in Tokyo from Wednesday.

National champion Sridhar, ranked 64, provided a perfect start for India with a 21-15, 21-9 mauling of Moody in the first singles in just 26 minutes, to take revenge for his loss to Moody at the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne.

Bhat then tamed newcomer Henry Tam 21-17, 21-5 to give a 2-0 lead to India.

Kanetkar, who replaced Anand and was playing in his first match of the championship, faced stiff challengefrom Craig Cooper but pushed his game one notch up in the final game for 21-13, 18-21, 21-10 victory in 40 minutes. PTI