Angga Pratama-Ryan Agung Saputra overcame a first game deficit to oust seconded seeded Indonesian team mates Mohammad Ahsan-Bona Septano in the second round of the YONEX SUNRISE India Open Superseries on Thursday. Angga-Ryan battled hard and never gave a quarter as they won 16-21, 21-16, 21-15 in 40 minutes. It was the one of two upsets in the men’s doubles. The other shock result saw Indonesia’s Yohanes Rendy Sugiarto-Afiat Yuris Wirawan knock out India’s eighth seeds Rupesh Kumar-Sanave Thomas 21-19, 21-12 while the remaining six seeds all safely negotiated the...

Denmark’s Tine Baun, Japan’s Eriko Hirose and Thailand’s Salakjit Ponsana followed top seed Saina Nehwal out of the YONEX SUNRISE India Open when they lost their second round matches on Thursday. Home favourite Saina was surprisingly knocked out by Japan’s Ai Goto on Wednesday and 24 hours later, second seed and two-time All-England champion Baun was also shown the door, along with fifth seed Hirose and eighth seed Ponsana. Baun, on the comeback trail after a 10-week hiatus due to a heel bone injury lost 21-13, 21-11 to unseeded Singaporean Chen Jiayuan. Hi...

India’s Sourabh Verma, who stunned former Asian champion Sony Dwi Kuncoro in the opening round of the YONEX SUNRISE India Open Superseries on Wednesday, make it two big wins in consecutive days when he knocked out seventh seed Kenichi Tago on Thursday. Sourabh, who won the All India Senior ranking tournament in February, is the No.1 senior player in India and trains at Gopichand academy. Like the former All-England Open champion, Sourabh has shown he has the stomach for a fight. Up against the world No. 25, Sourabh turned on the style to register a 21-19 18-21 21-11 victory ...

Olympic and Asian Games champions Markis Kido and Hendra Setiawan stayed on course to win the Badminton Asia Championship gold medal in the men’s doubles when they reached the quarter-finals on Thursday. The Indonesians, who won the Olympic title in Beijing and Asian crown in Guangzhou, are hoping their winning streak in China continues after being fellow Indonesians Rendy Sugiarto-Afiat Yuris Wirawan 21-11, 21-14 in Chengdu. They will now meet eight seeded Japanese pair Hirokatsu Hashimoto-Noriyasu Hirata, who beat unseeded Thais Patipat Chalardchaleam-Nipitphon Puangpuapech 21-...

World champion Chen Jin, who has not won an Open title since his stunning victory in the World Championships in Paris last August, failed in his bid to add the Badminton Asia Championship to his collection as his second round jinx continued on Thursday. The 25-year-old has had an awful start to 2011, crashing out in the second rounds of three Superseries tournaments in Malaysia, Korea and England and has only one final appearance to his name, losing the German Open Grand Prix event to Lin Dan, the man he replaced as world champion in France. On Thursday, it was Japan’s Sho S...

Wang Shixian's dream of winning a fourth title in 2011 came a cropper in the Badminton Asian Championships when she was knocked out of the women's singles in the second round on Thursday. Her loss to team mate Lu Lan means Wang Shixian’s amazing record of reaching the final in her last seven tournaments has come to a dramatic end. Things were looking good for Wang Shixian when she won the first game 21-10 but Lu Lan bounced back to take the next two games 21-18, 21-11 to book a quarter-final date with sixth seeded compatriot Li Xuerui. "I was a tired, I made too ma...

Thailand suffered a double blow after Duanganong Arookesorn-Kunchala Voravichitchaikul and Songphon Anugritayawon-Sudket Prapakamol were shown the exit on Day 3 of the Yonex Australian Open in Melbourne. In the women’s doubles, Duanganong-Kunchala were sent packing by China’s Ou Dongni-Xiong Rui while Songphon-Sudket were swept away by Chinese Taipei’s Liang Jui Wei-Liao Hao Kuan in the men’s doubles. The Australian Open, which used to be a Grand Prix tournament, is making its debut season as a Grand Prix Gold tournament, offering USD120,000 in total prize ...

Hot on the heels of the Formula One Grand Prix around Albert Park Lake, Melbourne last week comes the biggest badminton event in Australia - the 2011 Yonex Australian Open Grand Prix Gold. Graduating from its previous status as a Grand Prix event, this year’s event offers USD120,000 in total prize money and has attracted a strong cast with players from China making their way to the tournament. Played at the prestigious Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre (MSAC), fans can catch reigning World Champion and former number one Wang Lin of China in action. She will be joined by Li...

World No. 1 Lee Chong Wei, through his “Hope & Smile” charity fundraiser, raised more than RM600,000 for the Japan earthquake and tsunami victims. The two-time All England Open winner organised two exhibition matches in Penang and Kuala Lumpur and auctioned off several of his badminton equipment. Helping Chong Wei was former world and Olympic champion Taufik Hidayat, who flew into Malaysia to play a match against his good friend. Chong Wei won the friendly match 22-22, 19-21, 22-20. One of the racquets Chong Wei used to win this year’s All-England badmin...

Paris, March 24th 2011, The video of the proceedings during the Badminton Showcase “One night with Stars” held in Queue d’Arve Velodrome, Geneva on the 14th of March, 2011, is now available online on Totalsports.tv. This event was held to collect funds and create awareness for the charity foundation, Solibad – Badminton without Borders. This 90 minutes video is now available to all countries and can be purchased as a Video-on-Demand (VOD) at a fee of USD 4.79 on Totalsports.tv. This video will be available on this online platform until the 8th of May 2011. &ldqu...