Sunday, October 10, 2010

LYDIA BLOWS IT

Scotland’s Susan Egelstaff survived a scare before making the third round of the women’s singles event at the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi.

The third seed was came from behind in the second set to defeat Malaysia’s Lydia Cheah 21-14,21-19.

Susan was dominating in the first set with Lydia scrambling to retrieve the shuttle. Thus it was no surprise to see the Scot winning easily 21-14.

In the second Lydia started off brightly and led 11- 6 at the break. And although the Malaysian led 19-17, she could not finish off the set thus giving Susan the window to win in two sets as she reeled off four points on the trot.

“I hung in there and just set the shuttle back, letting her make the mistakes. And I guess she was tiring towards the end of the match and that helped my cause,” said Susan.

The men’s singles also saw status quo with all the seeded players clearing their matches with relative ease.

India’s P. Kashyap, who is the 6th seed, defeated Charles Pyne of Jamaica 21-5,21-12 while Chetan Anand, the third seed was in his element as he brushed aside Ola Fagbemi of Nigeria 21-12, 21

In the mixed doubles, Malaysia’s Chan Peng Soon/Goh Liu Ying defeated Charles Pyne/Christine Denise Leyow 21-12,21-14 to make it to the third round.

They will take on James Phillips/Caroline Harvey of Wales who defeated Sahir Edoo/Yeldie Leyow of Jamaica 21-8,21-16.

Malaysia’s scratch pairing of Koo Kien Keat/Chin Ee Hui also progressed to the third round defeating Kieren Merrilees/Kristy Gilmour 21-7,21-14.

It was also curtains for Australia’s sibling’s mixed doubles pair of Raj Veeran/Renuga Veeran as they lost to India’s Rupesh Kumar/Ashwini Ponnappa 21-16, 18-21,21-18.

The Australians led 11-9 in the second but made several unforced errors and trailed 12-14. But they pulled their act together to take the second set 21-18.

In the third it was Raj/Renuga that went into the lead at the break, 11-6, but their game caved in as the Indians drew level at 13-13. And although the pairs were locked in a point for point battle, Rupesh/Ashwini made fewer errors to win 21-18.

Also making the next round was Mathew Gleave/Sinead Chambers from Northern Ireland who defeated Joshua Green/Cristen Callow 19-21,21-13,21-15.

“It was a tough match and we played well. We targeted Callow as she was the weak link,” said Chambers.