British veterans Gail Emms and Nathan Robertson won a three-game thriller yesterday against China’s champions to clinch a place in the quarter-finals of the Olympic badminton mixed doubles.
The Athens silver medalists produced a gritty comeback against China’s second seeds Gao Ling and Zheng Bo after giving up a one game lead to win 21-16, 16-21, 21-19.
With a capacity crowd roaring for China, the British pair appeared rattled in the second game, and were down 17-12 in the third, before winning seven points in a row as they finally edged in front for victory.
Robertson, who has just returned from ankle surgery that left him out of action for six weeks, said they never gave up hope of winning.
“If we thought we were finished we would have lost,” Robertson said. “That’s what the Chinese do so well against us, they fight when they’re down, then come back.”
“They never give us anythng, so it was fantastic to turn that on them for a change and come back from five points down in the third set,” he said.
The Chinese pair were considered strong candidates to take the title.
In other mixed doubles matches, world champions Liliyana Natsir and Nova Widianto defeated South Korea’s Han Sanghun and Hwang Yumi 2-0.
In the men’s singles Taiwan’s Hsieh Yu-hsing beat Wong Choon Hann of Malaysia 14-21, 21-17, 21-18 in 69 minutes to make the quarter-finals.
Malaysia’s Lee Chong Wei joined him by beating Lithuania’s Kestutis Navickas 21-15, 21-7.
China’s world No. 1 Lin Dan downed South Korea’s Park Sung Hwan in straight sets while teammates Bao Chunlai and Chen Jin also won.
In the men’s doubles, Howard Bach and Bob Malaythong became the first shuttlers from the US to reach the badminton finals after downing South Africa’s Chris and Roelof Dednam.
Shohei Ohtani and Clayton Kershaw on Friday joined their Los Angeles Dodgers teammates in sticking their fists out to show off their glittering World Series rings at a ceremony. “There’s just a lot of excitement, probably more than I can ever recall with the Dodger fan base and our players,” manager Dave Roberts said before Los Angeles rallied to beat the Detroit Tigers 8-5 in 10 innings. “What a way to cap off the first two days of celebrations,” Roberts said afterward. “By far the best opening week I’ve ever experienced. I just couldn’t have scripted it any better.” A choir in the
After fleeing Sudan when civil war erupted, Al-Hilal captain Mohamed Abdelrahman and his teammates have defied the odds to reach the CAF Champions League quarter-finals. They are today to face title-holders Al-Ahly of Egypt in Cairo, with the return match in the Mauritanian capital, Nouakchott, on Tuesday next week. Al-Hilal and biggest domestic rivals Al-Merrikh relocated to Mauritania after a power struggle broke out in April 2023 between the Sudanese army and a paramilitary force. The civil war has claimed tens of thousands of lives and displaced more than 12 million people, according to the UN. The Democratic Republic of the Congo-born Al-Hilal
Shohei Ohtani, Teoscar Hernandez and Tommy Edman on Thursday smashed home runs to give the reigning World Series champions the Los Angeles Dodgers a 5-4 victory over Detroit on the MLB’s opening day in the US. The Dodgers, who won two season-opening games in Tokyo last week, raised their championship banner on a day when 28 clubs launched the season in the US. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts shuffled his batting lineup with all four leadoff hitters finally healthy as Ohtani was followed by Mookie Betts, then Hernandez and Freddie Freeman in the cleanup spot, switching places with Hernandez. “There’s a Teoscar tax to
Matvei Michkov did not score on Monday, but the Philadelphia rookie had a hand in both goals as hosts the Flyers earned a 2-1 victory over the Nashville Predators. Ryan Poehling and Jamie Drysdale got the goals for the Flyers (31-36-9, 71 points), who won their third straight. Michkov and Travis Konecny assisted on both. Ivan Fedotov stopped 28 shots to earn his first win since March 1, ending a personal six-game losing streak. Zachary L’Heureux got the lone goal for Nashville. Michael McCarron and Brady Skjei got the assists for the Predators (27-39-8, 62 points), who have just four goals in their
RSS