Taufik eases through at badminton worlds
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Olympic champion Taufik Hidayat of Indonesia faced little problems in the opening round of the world badminton championship, which began in Anaheim, California, on Monday.
Taufik, who is seeded sixth in the tournament, thumped Peruvian Rodrigo Pacheco 15-7, 15-3 in 38 minutes, according to www.o5worlds.com.
Sony Dwi Kuncoro, Indonesia's other men's singles contender, also won in his first match, breezing past Craig Goddard of Scotland 15-1, 15-1 in 21 minutes on Monday.
Taufik's next opponent is Eric Pang of the Netherlands while Sony has to tackle 12th seed Niels Christian Kaldau of Denmark. The matches were scheduled to be played on Wednesday evening local time.
In the men's doubles matches, Flandy Limpele/Eng Hian took just 17 minutes to stop Anil Seepaul/Kerwyn Pantin of Trinidad and Tobago in a 15-2, 15-3 victory.
They play Hwang Ji Man/Han Sang Hoon in the next round. The Korean pair defeated Khan Bob Malaythong/Raju Rai of the United States 15-7, 15-8.
Indonesia's other pairs -- Candra Wijaya/Sigit Budiarto and Luluk Hadiyanto/Alvent Yulianto along with mixed doubles Nova Widianto/Lilyana Natsir -- had byes and will open play in the second round.
Indonesia has no representatives in the women's singles or doubles.
England's best hopes of a world badminton championships medal has been sunk after Nathan Robertson sprained an ankle in training, according to Reuters.
Robertson and mixed doubles partner Gail Emms, world ranked number one and silver medalists at the Athens Olympics, have had to scratch from their event.
England coach Ian Wright told worldbadminton.net: "This is very frustrating because we all felt like they were ready to go one more step than the Olympics this time."
England's squad arrived late in the U.S. after being hit by the strikes that crippled Heathrow Airport over the weekend. The mixed doubles pair were due to fly out together last Friday but had to split up and make various alternative arrangements.
Four of the team members took a total of 40 hours for their journey to California, driving the last section from Las Vegas.