Badminton seeds lose in Thailand opener

JAKARTA (JP): Seeds tumbled in the opening round of the three- star Thailand Open in Bangkok Wednesday starting with the 13th seed Roslin Hashim of Malaysia.

Roslin, Malaysia's best hope in the tournament, surprisingly bowed out to little-known Shoji Sato of Japan 15-13, 15-8.

Seventh seeded Richard Vaughan of Wales also swallowed a bitter pill when he lost to host shuttler Boonsak Polsana 15-7, 15-6.

In another match, Peter Knowles of England breezed through his match against Takaaki Hayashi of Japan by winning 15-6, 15-5.

Sweden's Rasmus Wengberg also lost to Malaysian newcomer Yeoh Kay Bin 8-15, 6-15.

Worldbadminton.net also reported that world champion Sun Jun won his first match against the towering Swede Thomas Johansson but the score was unavailable.

Sun, trying to recapture his best form prior to the Olympic Games in Sydney in September, only needed 35 minutes to beat Johansson. The Chinese is trying to improve his world ranking which has dropped to 58th position.

Indonesians Hendrawan, Johan Hadikusuma, Ronny Agustinus and Budi Santoso also competed Tuesday but the results were unavailable as none of the players nor coaches could be reached for comment.

In the women's singles, top seeded Gong Zhichao of China barely had to try in order to give a gratuitous lesson to Rebecca Gordon of New Zealand winning effortlessly 11-1, 11-0.

Teammate Gong Ruina easily beat Ling Wai Ting of Hong Kong 11- 3, 11-2 while Zhou Mi defeated another Hong Kong shuttler Koon Wai Chee 11-1, 11-3.

Second seed Dai Yun, runner up in the 1999 World Championships, disposed of Sandra Dimbour of France 11-0, 11-6. Kelly Morgan of Wales, the 1998 Commonwealth Games winner, surprisingly crashed out to Huang Chia-Chi of China Taipei 11-9, 5-11, 11-13.

Indonesia only fielded Ellen Angelina in the event. (yan)