The Hindu : Sport / Badminton : Aparna storms into second round

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Aug 18, 2005

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Sport - Badminton

Aparna storms into second round

— File photo: Vino John

Aparna Popat.

New Delhi: India's top women shuttler Aparna Popat made a fine start breezing past 10th seed Petya Nedeltcheva of Bulgaria with a 11-6, 11-9 win in the opening round of the 14th World badminton championships at Anaheim, United States.

In the men's event, National champion Arvind Bhat, who had a tough draw against Athen's Olympic bronze medallist and 11th seeded Boonsak Ponsana of Thailand, bowed out in straight games 6-15, 9-15.

World Number 27, Popat and Nedeltcheva had a 1-1 head-to-head record before going into the match with the Indian having beaten her Bulgarian rival in the Swiss Open earlier this year.

Popat, who is unseeded here, has a comparatively easy outing in her next round when she faces New Zealand's Rebecca Bellingham.

The results (Men's singles, first round): Bao Chunlai bt Bobby Milroy 15-1, 15-6; Lee Chong Wei bt Jan Frohlich 15-10, 15-0; Taufik Hidayat bt Rodrigo Pacheco 15-7, 15-3; Liao Sheng-Shiun bt Miha Sepec 15-9, 15-7; Wong Choong Hann bt Geoffrey Bellingham 15-1, 15-5; Juergen Koch bt Scott Evans 15-12, 15-7; Shon Seung-Mo bt Marc Lai 15-0, 15-3; Bjoern Joppien bt Kestutis Navickas 15-9, 15-12; Kendrick Lee Yen-Hui bt Erwin Kehlhoffner 15-3, 15-4; Aamir Ghaffar bt Erick Anguiano 15-6, 15-0; Hugi Heimersson bt Carlos Longo 15-8, 15-5; Martyn Lewis bt Chris Dednam 6-15, 15-2, 15-13; Agus Hariyanto bt Yuichi Ikeda 15-2, 15-5; Boonsak Ponsana bt Arvind Bhat 15-6, 15-9; Eric Pang bt Shai Geffen 15-9, 15-2.

Women's singles first round: Juliane Schenk bt Zhou Mi 11-2, 11-9; Mia Audina Tjiptawan bt Helen Reino 11-0, 11-1; Cheng Shao-Chieh bt Anna Larchenko 11-3, 11-13, 11-4; Larisa Griga bt Anu Nieminen 11-4, 11-5; Maja Kersnik bt Lucia Tavera 11-6, 11-5; Wong Mew Choo bt Xing Aiying 11-8, 11-8; Shannon Pohl bt Michelle Edwards 9-11, 13-10, 11-5; Rebecca Bellingham bt Ragna Ingolfsdottir 13-11, 11-4; Anna Rice bt Claudia Rivero 11-0, 11-3; Agnese Allegrini bt Tatiana Vattier (FRA) 4-11, 11-3, 11-1; Aparna Popat bt Petya Nedeltcheva 11-6, 11-9; Eriko Hirose bt Lili Zhou 11-5, 11-9;

Sara Persson bt Jeanine Cicognini 11-5, 11-4. — Agencies

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