Hallam ends Yip challenge

Enlarge image

By John Ruwitch

BEIJING (Reuters) - Britain’s Tracey Hallam knocked out Hong Kong’s Yip Pui-yin in straight sets on the opening day of Olympic badminton, disappointing a boisterous crowd backing the only Chinese to play on Saturday.

Yip struggled from the start and never led by more than two points, but fought hard and made a diving save to fend off match point before Hallam, who made it to the quarter-finals in Athens, won 21-15, 21-17.

"Towards the end of both sets really we were fairly close. Especially in the second set it was just a matter of keeping my nerve and not thinking about what the score was, just playing that point," Hallam said.

Korea’s Jun Jaeyoun, the highest-ranked woman player to compete on Saturday at 11th on the women’s singles world list, breezed past left-hander Kamila Augustyn of Poland, 21-15, 21-5.

Earlier, Germany’s Juliane Schenk failed to capitalise on match point and was upset by Maria Kristin Yulianti of Indonesia, in a three-game singles starter to the day, 18-21, 21-13, 22-20.

In another close match, Canada’s Anna Rice kept her cool in a nailbiter game three to beat the only U.S. woman in the tournament, Eva Lee.

Britain’s Andrew Smith also advanced in the men’s singles competition, battling back after a first game loss to eliminate Petr .....continued below

Advertisement starts

Advertisement ends

Some of the biggest cheers from the crowd at the Beijing Institute of Technology gymnasium came as Taiwan’s Hsieh Yu-hsing dusted off Iran’s Kaveh Mehrabi, 21-16, 21-12.

On Sunday, the top women’s singles players hit the court, including the world’s number one and two ranked players, Xie Xingfang and Lu Nan of China. Women’s doubles also gets under way.

(Editing by Miles Evans)