Date:08/03/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/03/08/stories/2008030859732500.htm

Sport - Badminton

Hidayat struggles

BIRMINGHAM: Olympic gold medallist Taufik Hidayat tottered on the brink against Vietnamese qualifier Tien Minh Nguyen on Thursday before edging into the All-England quarterfinals.

Taufik trailed 15-19 in the deciding game but hung on to win six points in succession and clinch the match 21-17, 15-21, 21-19.

It was a big scare for the Indonesian against a qualifier ranked 37 in the world but Nguyen, one of Vietnam’s most successful sportsmen, has various big wins to his credit, including once beating Taufik.

The results:

Men’s singles: Second round: Chen Jin bt Przemyslaw Wacha 21-17, 21-9; Lin Dan bt Eric Pang 21-9, 21-12; Kenneth Jonassen bt Sho Sasaki 13-21, 22-20, 21-12; Sony Dwi Kuncoro bt Shoji Sato 17-21, 21-9, 21-16; Taufik Hidayat bt Tien Minh Nguyen 21-17, 15-21, 21-19; Joachim Persson bt Lu Yi 21-15, 21-18; Lee Chong Wei bt Tommy Sugiarto 21-18, 21-11; Bao Chunlai bt Chen Yu 21-11, 10-21, 21-18.

Women’s singles: Second round: Lu Lan w/o Wang Yihan; Wong Mew Choo bt Jiang Yanjiao 22-20, 23-21; Hwang Hye-youn bt Pui Yin Yip 21-15, 23-21; Tine Rasmussen bt Zhu Lin 21-14, 21-15; Yu Hirayama bt Yao Jie 21-17, 21-17; Chen Wang bt Cheng Shao-Chieh 21-17, 14-21, 21-18; Pi Hongyan bt Anna Rice 21-7, 22-20. — Agencies