Badminton: Australian takes out women's singles title

Australia's Lenny Permana was too strong for New Zealand's Rebecca Gordon in the women's singles final at the New Zealand international badminton tournament in Auckland yesterday.

Permana, who twice beat Gordon during the recent Whyte Trophy transtasman test series, continued that dominance to win 11-6, 11-0.

Indonesian-born Permana, a professional, was on the back foot early, as Gordon, who fits in badminton around her job as a teacher, raced out to a 5-0 lead.

Gordon could not maintain that momentum, though, and Permana came back into the match and punished Gordon's mistakes.

Earlier, Gordon won the women's doubles with elder sister and Commonwealth Games silver medallist, Nicole.

They beat fellow New Zealanders Rachel Hindley and Lianne Shirley 15-9, 15-1.

The men's singles title was won by second-seed Shoji Sato, of Japan, over his compatriot and top seed Hidetaka Yamada.

Sato, ranked 26 in the world, beat world No 11 Yamada 3-15, 15-4, 15-1.

Yamada looked as if he would wrap the final up in straight games after dominating the first game, but appeared to lose interest in the second as Sato surged ahead.

Sato again proved too strong in the third.

The men's doubles and mixed doubles were won by Australian combinations.