Badminton

India@Beijing Olympics 2008: Badminton

Saina Nehwal stormed into the quarters of the women’s singles event at the Beijing Olympics.

She defeated world number five and fourth seed Chen Wang of Hong Kong in a three set thriller 21-19, 11-21 and 21-11. Saina overcame her higher seed opponent Chen Wan someone whom she could not beat in her last two attempts.

She faced a tough resistance in the opening set from her opponent but he prevailed 21-19 in the end. However Chen Wang kept her cool and made a fighting comeback to claim the second set 21-11. Saina rushed through her opponent as she went for the kill in the decider to clinch the match 21-11 in her favour.

Anup Sridhar, India’s lone male badminton player in fray, on Sunday breezed into the second round of the singles event with a straight game win against Marco Vasconcelos of Portugal in the Beijing Olympic.

The Indian took just about half an hour to beat his opponent 21-16, 21-14 to set up a second round clash with world number 12 Shoji Sato of Japan who is regarded as one of the most nimble-footed shuttlers around.

Tags: Badminton, Beijing, Beijing Olympic, beijing olympics 2008, Chen Wang, hong kong, India, olympics, Saina Nehwal