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Saina Crashes out of Indian Open 2012
The Australian open runner up and world # 12 crushed ,hot favorite Saina in front of the home crowd today at the 
Sri hari fort stadium disappointing a huge following of he Indian star . The match saw a close competition and the Indian was struggling at the net where the Korean kept wining points at the Indian Open 2012 Saina crashed out in the second round, losing to South Korean Youn Joo Bae 19-21, 10-21.
The crowd which till then had savoured every moment of Parupalli Kashyap's sensational comeback win against Thailand's Boonsak Ponsana, PV Sindhu's upset of South Korean Ji Hyun Sung and Ajay Jayaram's valiant show against world No.1 Lee Chong Wei, fell silent.
A year ago, Saina had made a tearful exit in the first round of the India Open, and this time again she fell to a lesser known player.The left-handed Korean had beaten Saina only once in their four meetings before Thursday.She mixed up her game beautifully and Saina had no answers to her deceptive strokes and netplay. She began well and led 9-6 in the first game, but Youn steadily got the match in her grasp with a calm assurance.
Saina struggled to read her drops to the forecourt and was outplayed in the second game as Young grew in confidence.'I did not play well; don't know what went wrong. Sorry,' a visibly upset Saina said after the match. The other big casualty of the day was Denmark's Tine Baun, who lost to qualifier Xiao Jia Chen 13-21, 17-21.
Sindhu remained the only Indian in the women's singles draw. The 16-year-old shuttler beat eighth-seeded South Korean Ji Hyun Sung 21-17, 22- 20 and will next take on fourthseeded Chinese Yanjiao Jiang in the quarter-finals.Neha Pandit's run came to an end as she lost to Juan Gu of Singapore 13-21, 10-21. In the men's singles, Kashyap saved two match points to put it across Ponsana 15-21, 21-14, 22-20 to move into the quarter-finals.
Chen Jin win Asian Championship
China's Chen Jin moved closer to sealing his berth at the London Olympics by winning the men's singles title at the Asian Championships on Sunday.
Chen, who was seeded third, defeated fellow countryman and fifth seed Du Pengyu 21-12, 21-18 in China's eastern city of Qingdao.
The 26-year-old Chen needs to stay ahead of rival Peter Gade of Denmark in order to assure his coveted spot at the Olympics this year, the Xinhua news agency said.
Chen said he had his eyes on the Olympics.
"These two months have been continuous matches. I'm tired both physically and mentally," he said. "But there is no other way. For the purpose of Olympic points, I have to go all out."
The Asian Championships are one of the last major tournaments before the London Olympics.
But Chen played down his individual achievement, saying the performance of the Chinese team was more important.
"It doesn't matter who is champion. After all, the top four places in the Asian Championship are ours," he said, referring to the men's singles event.
Chen had a walkover in the semi-finals on Saturday after fellow Chinese badminton superstar and four-time world champion Lin Dan withdrew due to injury.
Lin's spot at the Olympics is assured, as he has already qualified.
In the women's single final, fourth-seeded Li Xuerui shocked by beating world champion Wang Yihan 21-16, 16-21, 21-9 in a hard-fought contest that lasted more than an hour.
The women's doubles final was another all Chinese affair. Top-seeded duo Tian Qing and Zhao Yunlei held off a pair of young upstarts, Bao Yixin and Zhong Qianxin, to win 21-14, 21-15.
"Although they are younger than us, they are very powerful and it was difficult for us to win," Tian was quoted by Xinhua as saying
Lin Dan take 5th All England Title
Chinese badminton star Lin Dan snatched his fifth title at All England Open on Sunday after his archrival Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia withdrew from the final due to injury.
The glitzy pair both breezed through the tournament all the way to the final without dropping a game. When they marched into the arena, audience seethed, rattling inflatable sticks, waving national flags and shouting their names.
Dubbed the "dream final", or confrontation between giants, Lin and Lee proved their capacity in the first game when these world top shuttlers tied for several times, from 1-1 to 19-19. Slipped down for a few times, they tried their best not to make mistakes while lashing out swift killing smashes. With crowds holding their breath, their point differences never exceeded four.
When it came to the end of the match, the World No. 1 Lee lapsed by striking the ball out of bounds. The left-handed Lin gained a temporary lead.
In the second game, the second-seeded Lin maintained his momentum by dominating the field 3-0 and 6-2, before Lee, the defending champion who was seeking a hat trick at All England Open, decided to quit.
"I have my left shoulder injured on Friday," said the regretful Lee. "Inspite of the injury, I still wanted to get the trophy so I persisted till today. But my opponent now is Lin who is too hard to beat. Considering the upcoming Olympics, I made this hard decision."
Austrian Title for Rupesh and Sanave
Doubles specialists Rupesh Kumar and Sanave Thomas ended their yearlong title drought, winning the Austrian International Challenge in Vienna on Saturday. The Indian duo defeated the Japanese pair of Hiroyuki Saeki and Ryota Taohata 23-21, 22-20 in the title clash.
Rupesh and Sanave were the top seeds in the tournament, but came through some tough matches to justify their billing. The victory against England's Chris Langridge and Peter Mills in the semi-final, when the Indians bounced back from a game down to win the hour- long duel 19-21, 21-16, 21-15, was impressive.
This was the first title for the seasoned pair in a year's time. "We have been playing well in the last few months and made it to the finals on a couple of occasion but we couldn't clinch titles. We are very happy to be able to win here. We defeated some good pairs in the tournament, including the English duo and that has given us confidence," Rupesh Kumar told Mail Today from Vienna.
The victory assumes significance as they attempt to go up in the ranking ladder to make the cut for the Olympics. The pair is ranked No26 at the moment and need to feature in top 16 to play in London.
"The next few tournaments will be important for us. We are playing Germany, All England and Swiss tournaments. We have to keep the winning momentum going.
"The way we are playing at the moment we should qualify. But there are not many tournaments left before the London cut-off date (May 3) and we need to make the most of the upcoming events," he said.
"We are pretty happy the way things are going at the moment. We have been playing some close matches of late and this victory will boost our confidence for the upcoming tournaments." India's challenge in the men's singles ended with the exit of Parupalli Kashyap, who was the top seed but lost to Belgium's Yuhan Tan (16-21, 16-21) in the semi-final.
In women's singles, Aditi Mutatkar made it to the quarter- final stage before losing to Neslihan Yigit (21-15, 12-21, 21-12) of Turkey.
Source:India Today
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