Badminton World Championship: Rupesh-Sanave pair into QF

MADRID: Indian men's doubles combination of Rupesh Kumar and Thomas Sanave entered the men's doubles pre-quarterfinals at the World Badminton Championships after pulling off a thrilling victory over Malaysia's Yohan Hadikusumo Wiratama and Albertus Susanto on Wednesday.

The Indian pair won the second round duel 21-17 19-21 21-19 in 46 minutes to find a place in the last 16 of the draw.

In the pre-quarterfinals, Rupesh and Sanave are likely to run into top seeds Hanfeing Fu and Yun Cai of China, who are drawn against the Welsh pair of Matthew Hughes and Martyn Lewis in their second round encounter.

However, India's singles challenge at the championships ended with Trupti Murgunde going down to Japanese Eriko Hirose in the second round.

Murgunde blew away a one-game lead to lose the contest 21-6 16-21 12-21.

In the women's doubles, Murgunde and B R Meenakshi proved a mismatch against the Chinese combination of Yawen Zhang and Yili Wie as they were handed a drubbing in their second round match.

The Indian pair was packed off 2-21 7-21 in just 15 minutes on Tuesday night.

The other Indian ladies' pair of Jwala Gutta and Shruti Kurian, who reached the pre-quarterfinal after the Korean Hyo Jung Lee and Kyung Won Lee gave them a walkover in the second round, will face Kumiko Ogura and Reiko Shiota.