Thailand and Taiwan each made it two wins out of two at the Sudirman Cup yesterday to keep alive their hopes of promotion to the elite group of the badminton tournament.
Taiwan, enjoying the support of the crowd in Guangzhou, hammered France 4-1. Thailand won the fifth and final rubber to squeeze through 3-2 winners over Germany.
The teams go head to head in group 2A today.
PHOTO: AFP
In the third tier of competition, India justified their pre-tournament tag of strong favorites to gain promotion with a 5-0 hammering of Ukraine.
In what was an impressive all-round display over the five rubbers, Saina Nehwal was particularly dominant for India in the women’s singles, seeing off Mariya Diptan 21-18, 21-9 in just 22 minutes.
India won their first match against Australia on Monday, 4-1.
Later yesterday, hosts and cup holders China played Japan, while also in the top group, South Korea were due to face Denmark.
On Monday Malaysia made up for the disappointment of losing to South Korea on the opening day and Indonesia confirmed their status as one of the prime threats to China.
The Malaysians humbled Hong Kong 4-1 and Indonesia recovered from a match down to run out 4-1 winners against a dispirited England.
SS Lazio on Monday fired the far-right sympathizer who handles their eagle mascot after he posted online a series of videos and pictures of his erect penis. Falconer Juan Bernabe, who has been present at Lazio home matches with Olimpia the eagle since the 2010-2011 season, posted the footage on social media after having surgery on Saturday to implant a penile prosthesis to improve his sexual performance. Lazio said that they had “terminated, with immediate effect” their relationship with Bernabe “due to the seriousness of his conduct,” adding that they were “shocked” by the images. The Serie A club added that Bernabe’s dismissal
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