August 16, 2007	Thursday	Sha’aban 2, 1428

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 15: Indonesia's Olympic champion Taufik Hidayat exited the World Badminton Championships in dramatic style on Wednesday, beaten 21-14, 24-26, 22-20 by India's Anup Sridhar in an enthralling second round match.

After dropping the first set, Taufik needed six game points before finally clinching the second and looked to be in control at 18-13 in the decider.

However, the lanky, elegant Sridhar was not to be denied against the 2005 world champion. Two net cords in favour of the Indian levelled the score at 19-19 and when Taufik smashed long on the next point, the writing was on the wall.

Bravely, the eighth-seeded Taufik managed to save one match point but succumbed at the next to become the tournament's biggest casualty to date.

Sridhar told reporters: “It's the biggest win in my career so far and I'm happy it came in a big event like the world championships.”

Sridhar, who lost in the in the first round of last year's worlds in Madrid, said: “I think I played quite well today... I don't think he played too badly but he has played a lot better.”

Defending champion Lin Dan of China was seeking to avoid similar problems later on Wednesday in his second round game against Hong Kong's Wei Ng.

A big crowd was expected at the Putra Stadium later for the first appearances of local hopes Lee Chong Wei, seeded two in the men's singles, and men's doubles pairing of Koo Kien Keat and Tan Boon Heong.

Earlier, Poland had a rare glimpse of badminton limelight when unseeded men's doubles pair Michal Logosz and Robert Mateusiak beat last year's silver medallists Anthony Clark and Robert Blair of England 21-16 21-16 in their second round match.

Logosz said: “It's one of our best results ever... tomorrow we want to play as well as we did today.”

Poland had looked like pulling off another upset on the adjacent court when women's singles player Kamila Augustyn took the first set off 16th-seed Tracey Hallam, but the Englishwoman fought back to win 15-21 21-16 21-11.

Wednesday’s results (prefix number denotes seeding):

Men's singles:

Second round: Anup Sridhar (India) beat 8-Taufik Hidayat (Indonesia) 21-14, 24-26, 22-20; 12-Przemyslaw Wacha (Poland) beat Simon Manoury (France) 21-18, 21-10; 6-Chen Yu (China) beat Bjorn Joppien (Germany) 21-15, 21-7; 11-Ronald Susilo (Singapore) beat Richard Vaughan (Wales) 21-17, 21-17; 14-Park Sung-hwan (South Korea) beat Andrew Dabeka (Canada) 21-16, 21-5; Lee Hyun-il (South Korea) beat 10-Shoji Sato (Japan) 21-19, 21-15; 16-Simon Santoso (Indonesia) beat Pablo Abian (Spain) 21-18, 21-15; 7-Kenneth Jonassen (Denmark) beat Nicholas Kidd (England) 21-14, 21-7.

Women's singles:

Second round: 1-Zhang Ning (China) beat Jang Soo-young (South Korea) 21-9, 21-14; 16-Tracey Hallam (England) beat Kamila Augustyn (Poland) 15-21, 21-16, 21-11; 14-Kaori Mori (Japan) beat Larisa Griga (Ukraine) 18-21, 21-14, 21-15; 2-Xie Xingfang (China) beat Ana Moura (Portugal) 21-2, 21-7; 10-Wong Mew Choo (Malaysia) beat Ekaterina Ananina (Russia) 21-14, 22-20; Saina Nehwal (India) beat 13-Juliane Schenk (Germany) 21-16, 21-10; 9-Petya Nedeltcheva (Bulgaria) beat Eva Lee (U.S.) 21-13, 21-11; 4-Pi Hongyan (France) beat Charmaine Reid (Canada) 21-13, 21-12; 6-Chen Wang (Hong Kong) beat Li Li (Singapore) 21-13, 21-6.—Reuters