Story ProgressBack to home
Aparna storms into 2nd round at Anaheim
India's top woman shuttler Aparna Popat won the opening round of the 14th World Badminton Championships at Anaheim, United States.
- Indo-Asian News Service
- Updated: February 25, 2007 09:53 AM IST
Read Time:2 min
New Delhi:
India's top woman shuttler Aparna Popat has won the opening round of the 14th World Badminton Championships at Anaheim, United States. She made a fine start breezing past 10th seed Petya Nedeltcheva of Bulgaria with a 11-6 11-9 win. Popat played with fire and took only 30 minutes to seal the issue in her favour. In the men's event, National Champion Arvind Bhat, who had a tough draw against Athen's Olympic bronze medallist and 11th seeded Boonsak Ponsana of Thailand, bowed out in straight games 6-15 6-9. World Number 27, Popat and Nedeltcheva had a 1-1 head-to-head record before going into the match with the Indian having beaten her Bulgarian rival in the Swiss Open earlier this year. Medal hope Popat, who is unseeded here, has a comparatively easy outing in her next round when she faces New Zealand's Rebecca Bellingham. The Kiwi reached the second round by beating Ragna Ingolfsdottir of Iceland 13-11 11-4. Twenty-seven year-old Popat is India's best medal hope in the four-member team taking part in the Championship. In the men's doubles event, 42-ranked India's Thomas and Rupesh Kumar, who got a bye in the first round, will face second-seeded Indonesian pair of Sigit Budiarto and Candra Wijaya on Thursday. (PTI)Topics mentioned in this article
Badminton Saina Nehwal
Get the Latest IPL 2024 Updates, check out IPL 2024 schedules and IPL points table at NDTV Sports.Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter for more sports updates. You can also download the NDTV Cricket app for Android or iOS.