Olympic doubles duo save blushes with gritty Open win

It was almost a nightmarish day for Singapore's four Olympic-bound shuttlers in the Li-Ning Singapore Open at the Singapore Indoor Stadium yesterday.

But, the women's doubles pair of Yao Lei and Shinta Mulia Sari managed to eke out a 21-18, 18-21, 21-18 victory over Malaysia's Vivian Hoo and Woon Khe Wei to negotiate their opening round.

"We relaxed a bit in the second set, and that allowed our opponents to take the set," said Shinta. "But we picked up the pace in the third, and did not relax until we won."

The two Singapore representatives for the singles tournaments, however, did not fare as well.

Derek Wong spent only 34 minutes on court, before losing his men's singles tie 12-21, 13-21 to India's R. M. V. Gurusaidutt.

After the defeat, Wong said: "My opponent's defence was very good. I tried to drag out the rallies, but it was me who made all the errors in the end.

"At least the loss makes me realise how much work I need to put in to prepare for the Olympics."

Gu Juan, Singapore's representative in the Olympic women's singles, also lost a tight match against Thailand's Porntip Buranaprasertsuk, losing 18-21, 20-22.

The men's singles saw a huge shock when top seed Sho Sasaki of Japan was stunned by Denmark's Viktor Axelsen, losing 10-21, 21-15, 12-21.

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