Friday 12th August, 2011 15 Lee beats Lang to reach round of 16 at worlds

WEMBLEY, England (AP) — Dan’s world title defense last career,” said Wong, who now Lee Chong Wei moved into the year in Paris and who - plays Hans-Kristian round of 16 at the badminton came Shon Wan-ho 21-14, 21-10 Vittinghaus of Denmark. world championships by beat- Wednesday to also advance. Also, former top-ranked ing Ville Lang of Finland 21-10, Lin downed Scott Evans of player Peter Gade of Denmark 21-11 Wednesday at Wembley Ireland 21-15, 21-16 and will defeated Stanislav Pukhov of Arena. play Lee Hyun-il of South Russia 21-5, 21-9. Lee, who is trying to become Korea in a repeat of the 2008 In the women’s tournament, the first Malaysian to win a Korean Open final that featured Commonwealth Games champi- world badminton title, earned an on-court scuffle between the on Saina Nehwal of India beat the silver medal at the 2008 Chinese and his opponent’s Chloe Magee of Ireland 21-10, Beijing Olympics. Next year’s coach. 21-7. Olympics will be played at “I won’t be thinking of “All the players are putting Wembley. revenge,” Lin said. “I don’t up a tough fight these days, and “I feel quite confident, and have negative feeling about all girls can do well,” Nehwal it’s going well, but my most what happened in the past.” said. “And I am fit enough and important opponent will still be Wong Zi Liang of Singapore playing well enough to have a my next one,” said Lee, who upset 2005 champion Taufik chance of beating them. I just had to play through a draft in Hidayat 21-17, 21-14, likely have to do my best, that’s all.” the arena. inflicting the Indonesian’s last Two of China’s best hopes Lee will next face ninth- worlds loss. for the women’s singles, Wang Malaysia’s Chong Wei Lee is seen in action at the World Badminton Championships at Wembley Arena, London, seeded Park Sung-hwan, who “I was well prepared and Yihan and 2010 worlds runner- Thursday, Aug. 11, 2011. The championships are an unofficial testing event for the London Olympics. (AP) ended Olympic champion Lin this is the best win of my up Wang Xin also won. No. 1 Wozniacki loses, Williams wins at Rogers Cup TORONTO (AP) — Defending won that one and especially after about the wind, which swirled Hasindhi Lokuge wins Girls’ U-14 title champion Caroline Wozniacki lost leading 5-1 in the second,” around the court in gusts. the last six straight games to Wozniacki said. “It’s not fun to “It was just so much wind out Roberta Vinci in a 6-4, 7-5 upset lose this, but there’s nothing really there so it was a little difficult, but BY REVATA S. SILVA defeat in the second round of the I can do about it now, just practice, we were in the same circum- Top seeded Hasindhi Lokuge won the Girls’ Under-14 Rogers Cup on Wednesday. and try to do better.” stances so that’s what I tried to The world No. 1-ranked Windy conditions wreaked think of. But she played really Singles title when she beat Rukshana Abdeen, seeded num- Wozniacki, who has won a WTA- havoc with Wozniaki’s serve in the well,” Williams said. ber two, 0-6, 7-6 (3), 6-4 at the Women’s International Club leading five titles this year, was first set and she finished the Williams will next meet (WIC) Open Ranking Junior Tennis Tournament (‘C’ leading 5-1 in the second set and match with seven double-faults. China’s Zheng Jie, who advanced Grade) on Wednesday (Aug. 10) at the club clay courts in looking to rally from a set down, “It was very difficult at first Tuesday night when second-seeded but the No. 22-ranked Vinci fin- with the wind,” Wozniacki said. Kim Clijsters pulled out due to Colombo. ished her off with three straight “Especially when you threw it up. stomach muscle injury. The tournament was scheduled to conclude yesterday. breaks of serve. It was going everywhere, so defi- Sharapova’s serve abandoned (The overall results of the tournament will be published In other matches, former No. 1 nitely that didn’t make it easy.It her in a second set that saw her in ‘The Sunday Island’ sports supplement ‘Sportstar’ this Serena Williams and fifth-seeded was blowing in different direc- commit five double-faults. The Maria Sharapova both advanced. tions, but it’s the same for both Sunday). Williams pulled out a tough players.” three-time Grand Slam champion second set to beat Julia Goerges 6- Vinci reached the third round finally sealed the victory when 1, 7-6 (7), and Sharapova edged 19- of the Rogers Cup in her third Jovanovski sent a return long. Hasindhi Lokuge plays a forehand drive in the Girls’ U-14 finals year-old Bojana Jovanovski of time in the tournament. She has “I expected my opponent to against Rukshana Abdeen which Lokuge won 0-6, 7-6 (3), 6-4 at Serbia 6-1, 7-5 in a chilly evening wins this year in Barcelona, play well today because she’s dan- the WIC clay courts in Colombo on Wednesday, Aug. 10. match. Budapest and Hertongenbosch. gerous, although she’s a qualifier Williams, a 13-time Grand Slam “This is the best victory in my she’s someone who’s moving up (Pic by Dimuthu Premarathne) tournament champion, used her life,” the 28-year-old Italian said. and young and eager, and has beat- intimidating serve to roll through “I was 5-1 down but I knew that en good players before,” her first set before the 20th-ranked I can win the set because it was a Sharapova said. “She’s on her way Goerges hit back in the second. lot of wind, so some mistakes. I up. So I knew that it was going to Wozniacki had a bye in the tried to stay focused and play first round and never really got aggressive. That’s it, this is the key be a dangerous round knowing she going against Vinci. why I won the set.” had played a few matches already “I would have liked to have Williams also complained and this was my first match.” Jagath Rajapaksha Table Tennis Championship dates rescheduled

The dates of the All-island gles for boys and girls. The Table Tennis Ranking championship will be held at Tournament for the Jagath the Jagath Rajapaksha Rajapaksha Challenge Trophy International Indoor Stadium have been rescheduled. in Peradeniya. According to the tourna- The championship was ment’s organisers, the cham- earlier scheduled to be held in pionship will now be held in July, but requests made by Peradeniya from August 23-25. school principals to postpone The championship will the event due to mid-year comprise the open men’s and examinations forced the women’s, under 15 and under organisers to reschedule the 18 singles for boys and girls dates of the tournament. and the under 10 and 12 sin- (RN)

Sri Lanka A beat Notts by five Sri Lanka A regis- for five in 41.4 overs 32; 1/35, tered a comfortable (Lahiru Thirimanne 70, 1/60, five win against Dimuth Karunaratne Steven Mullaney 1/41, Nottinghamshire, as 42, Kaushal Silva 42, Graeme White 1/51) they beat the hosts on Nilanka Premaratne (MN) the D/L method in a rain affected match. Sri Lanka A were set a revised target of 272 in their second one-dayer at Trent Bridge, Nottingham, on Wednesday. Winning the toss and opting to field first, Sri Lanka A chased down the revised tar- get, scoring 273 in 41.4 overs, with eight balls to spare, as Bhanuka Rajapaksa slogged an impressive unbeaten 47 runs off 29 balls with four fours and two sixers. The match was hampered by rain and reduced to 43 overs. Brief Scores: Nottinghamshire 293 for nine in 50 overs (Steven Mullaney 61, Matthew Hendrik Wessels 57, Samuel Kelsall 40; S. Serasinghe 3/39, K. Alvitigala 3/63, N. Premaratne 2/71) Sri Lanka A 273