Saina beats Kim, in Korea Open second round
Indian fifth seed Saina Nehwal advanced to the second round of women’s singles with a straight games victory at the $600,000 Korea Open in Seoul on Wednesday.
Saina defeated local player Kim Hyo Min 21-12, 21-11 in 40 minutes in the BWF World Tour Super 500 badminton tournament to take a 2-0 lead over the South Korean in career meetings. World No 10 Saina will next take on Korean qualifier Kim Ga Eun for the first time in her career on Thursday. Later, Vaishnavi Reddy Jakka and Sameer Verma lost their respective first round openers. In women’s singles, American sixth seed Beiwen Zhang defeated Vaishnavi 21-10, 21-9 in 19 minutes while Danish Anders Antonsen beat Verma 15-21, 21-16, 21-7 in 59 minutes.
RUSSIA CHALLENGES IAAF SUSPENSION
Russia’s athletics federation said on Wednesday it had filed an appeal at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) against the decision by global athletics body IAAF to prolong its suspension.
The federation was suspended in November 2015 following a report commissioned by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) that found evidence of systematic, state-sponsored doping in the sport.
Federation spokeswoman Natalia Yukhareva told Reuters it had filed an appeal with CAS against the IAAF’s decision to extend the federation’s suspension at its last council meeting in July. At the time the IAAF said that Russia had made “significant progress” in meeting criteria for reinstatement, but that its suspension would remain in place until the council convened again in December. The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) and CAS did not immediately comment.
NEWDELHI:
BARTY TIME! AUSSIE UPSETS KERBER
In-form Australian Ashleigh Barty said she was hitting top gear as she upset Wimbledon champion Angelique Kerber 7-5, 6-1 to reach the Wuhan Open quarter-finals in China on Wednesday. Barty didn’t allow Kerber any momentum as she denied the World No 3 the chance to narrow the gap on the top ranking held by Simona Halep, who lost her opening match.
“I feel like by far this was my best match,” said Barty, who wants to end this season on a high. “I set myself that goal at the start of the year, that I want to stay top-20. I feel like I’m a top-20 player. Obviously I would love to push towards the top 10,” she added.
MOSCOW: WUHAN: