Thursday, February 26, 2009

Indians advance in German Open badminton


New Delhi (IANS): It was a good day for Indians at the Yonex German Open badminton tournament as all the four players in the men's section moved into the second-round.

Chetan Anand, Arvind Bhat, Anand Pawar registered easy wins while Anup Sridhar was stretched to three games by his German opponent on Wednesday at Mulheim.

Second-seed Anand was clinical in his 21-6, 21-8 win over Swede Henri Hurskainen and will now play Malaysian Kay Bin Yeoh, who staved off a stiff challenge from Russian Ivan Sozonov 17-21, 21-15, 21-11.

Ninth-seed Bhat showed the door to Dutchman Koen Ridder with a scoreline 21-15, 21-13. In the second-round, Bhat will meet Kestutis Navickas of Lithuania who beat Malaysian Mohamad Arif Abdul Latif 21-19, 24-22.

Pawar brushed aside Malaysian Daren Liew 21-17, 21-19 to set up a second-round meeting with fifth seeded Briton Andrew Smith who was made to toil hard by Canandian David Snider before winning 23-25, 21-19, 21-16.

Sridhar, seeded 15th, overcame mid-match jitters against Dane Sven-Eric Kastens to win 21-16, 16-21,21-15. He next plays local boy Marcel Reuter who scored a facile 21-11, 21-7 over Emil Vind of Denmark.

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