Badminton: Repeat silver in reach for doubles pair

MELBOURNE - A jubilant fist pump and Lleyton Hewitt's favourite "C'mon!" said it all for 2002 Commonwealth Games badminton silver medallists Nicole Gordon and Sara Runesten Petersen.

The New Zealand pair were given a fright by Malaysians Julia Wong and Sock Ai Ooi before reaching the 2006 women's doubles quarterfinals with a 22-20 24-26 21-17 victory at the Melbourne Exhibition Centre here today.

The 65-minute slog, around twice the length of a normal match, moved a relieved Gordon to call on the immortal words of 1950s All Black Peter Jones.

"It's bloody hard once you win a tight, close set to then try and pick ourselves up for the third," Gordon said.

"It was really pleasing we came out so well in the third, I must say I was absolutely buggered and hoping it was the end of the match in the second.

"This was our first big match that really mattered."

The pair were expected to beat the Malaysians, that country's No 2 combination who hadn't played a lot of doubles together.

The first set went to plan and the second was an epic struggle as the New Zealanders eyed a match point at 23-22 but couldn't convert.

Their experience told in the decider as they rattled off five unanswered points to seize control at 19-14 then closed it out on their third match point.

"We gutsed it out. Nicole did so much work from the back. We played really well, we moved really well, attacked well and defended well. Everything seemed to be working today," Runesten Petersen said.

The key was "picking on" Malaysia's specialist singles player and forcing errors in the third set, Runesten Petersen said.

Next up are the tournament third seeds Yanmei Jiang and Yujia Li of Singapore, with English second seeds Gail Emms and Donna Kellogg looming in the semis.

"They're two hard hitters and they're just going to come bashing at us, and we've got to find a way to get around them so they don't do that," Runesten Petersen said of the Singaporeans.

"I think we're up there but the competition is a lot stronger this time than in 2002. We beat a Malaysian pair in the semis last time who are the top seeds now.

"But we're playing as well, if not better than last time."

There was worse news in the men's singles, with Geoff Bellingham and John Moody both losing their last-16 matches in straight sets.

Bellingham lost to India's Anup Sridhar 21-10 21-10 while Moody lost 21-15 21-9 to Singapore's Hendra Wijaya.

Earlier, both made the men's doubles quarterfinals.

Third seeds Bellingham and Craig Cooper beat Fiji's Ryan Fong and Burty Molia 21-13 to book a match against Australians Ashley Brehaut and Travis Denney.

Moody and Dan Shirley had to work harder, beating Australians Ross Smith and Glenn Warfe 21-15 19-21 21-19, and now face the English second seeds Robert Blair and Anthony Clark.

Rebecca Bellingham's Games also came to an end after her tense exit from the singles yesterday, with she and Rachel Hindley losing their last-16 women's doubles match 21-8 21-19 to Malaysia.

- NZPA