Indian top seeds move to quarterfinals of Asian Badminton

New Delhi, 15^th April 2010: Top seed women’s singles player Saina Nehwal from India along with top seed mixed doubles Indian pair of Jwala Gutta and V Diju surged their way to the quarter finals of the Yonex Sunrise Badminton Asia Championships 2010 today. The tournament that has participation of top shuttlers from 21 Asian countries is being played at the state-of-the-art Siri Fort Sports complex in the national capital.

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In a big upset of the championship today, tournament top seed Taufiq Hidayat from Indonesia made an early exit after he lost to Chinese Taipei’s Hsuan Yi Hsueh in straight sets. The match saw a tough fight between both the players before closing in Hsueh’s favour with a score of 22-20 and 21-16 on board. Hsueh now faces Kenichi Tago of Japan in the quarterfinals tomorrow.

“It’s a game, sometimes you win and sometimes you loose,” said the Taufiq Hidayat after his loss. The world no. 3 and tournament top seed had yesterday applauded the facilities at the Siri Fort Sports complex and rated the stadium to be one of the best venues in the country. He had said, “The facilities here are good and I find Delhi to be the best venue in India so far.”

Top seed women’s singles player Saina Nehwal from India moved ahead to the quarterfinals after she defeated Julia Pei Xian Wong of Malaysia in straight sets of 21-14 and 21-16. Saina is now pitted against Malaysian shuttler Mew Choo Wong in the quarterfinals tomorrow.

Saina after her win said, “It was a nice match and it’s been my best performance in the Asian badminton championships so far. I hope to get good results out of this tournament this time.”

Top seed Indian mixed doubles pair of Jwala Gutta and V Diju now faces Chinese mixed doubles team of Zihan Qiu and Quing Tian in the Quarter finals tomorrow. The Indian pair moved ahead defeating Chinese Taipei’s Sheng Mu Lee and Yu Chin Chien in straight sets of 24-22 and 21-15.

“It was a tough and a very fast match but luckily we did not commit any service mistakes as the opponents and that benefited us immensely,” said Jwala Gutta, after her win.

She further added, “The court seems to be in fine shape and the drift is nothing to be complained about as this is normal with all air conditioned stadiums across the world.”

In another encounter of the day Aditi Mutatkar from India defeated Hsiao Huan Chen of Chinese Taipei to move ahead to the quarter finals. Aditi now faces Xin Liu from China tomorrow in the quarter finals.

Third seed indian men’s doubles team of Sanave Thomas and Rupesh Kumar also moved to the quarterfinal stage today. They now face the Korean pair of Sang Hoon Han and Ji Masn Hwang tomorrow.