Badminton

Relief for Letshanaa, dejection for Jin Wei

KUALA LUMPUR: Women's singles K. Letshanaa and Goh Jin Wei experienced contrasting fortunes at the Indonesia Masters on Wednesday.

Letshanaa survived the first round, but Jin Wei didn't.

World No. 59 Letshanaa upset Ukraine's world No. 51 Polina Buhrova 21-23, 21-15, 21-19 in 68 minutes at the Istora Senayan Stadium in Jakarta.

Yesterday, Letshanaa battled past Denmark's world No. 61 Amalie Schulz in the qualifying round.

Letshanaa's win over a higher ranked rival came as a confidence booster as she has drawn flak from national coaching director Rexy Mainaky for "making too many excuses and grumbling a lot".

She will face either India's former world champion, P. V. Sindhu or Vietnam's Nguyen Thuy Linh, in the second round.

World No. 47 Jin Wei couldn't put an end to her early round jinx, losing to Taiwan's world No. 29 Hsu Wen Chi 21-14, 19-21, 21-14 in 46 minutes.

For the two-time former world junior champion, this was her ninth-straight first-round exit, a run that stretched all the way to last year's Singapore Open.

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