Aparna in semis, Gopi in quarters

Mee Fen, who put out second seed Li Feng, the Chinese-born Kiwi in an earlier round, gave Aparna her hardest match thus far. The unseeded Malaysian, who had the entire crowd behind her trailed 0-3 before closing it to 2-3 and thereafter she was just one point behind Aparna who led 4-3, 5-4, 6-5 and then 8-7 before closing the firstgame at 11-7 with some deft placements.

Aparna seemed to be running away with the second game as she had Mee Fen on the defensive and attacked her backhand. She moved the youngster around and finished off points with some effective smashes. She went 8-3 ahead, but the Malaysian fought back and went ahead 10-9. However, the Indian regained her poise in time to force deuce and take the game and match at 13-10.

On the adjacent court, top seed Kelly Morgan of Wales thrashed Zarinah Abdullah of Singapore 11-5, 11-3. The other semi-finalists are Julia Mann of England who defeated Anne Gibson of Scotland and another English player Tracey Hallam beat New Zealand’s Rhona Robertson 11-9, 8-11, 11-9.

Gopi Chand, who will be leaving for Germany to play for FC Langenfeld in the Badminton Bundesliga soon after the Commonwealth Games, said he was fully fit after a long time.

“My toughest match thus far was the one against Peter Knowles of England and I am glad I had a match like that because it helped get into theright frame of mind for later stages,” Gopi Chand said.

Meanwhile, top seed Yong Hock Kin entrusted with the responsibility of bringing the individual gold for Malaysia in the absence of Ong Ewe Hock, cruised through to the quarters trashing Geraint Lewis of Wales 15-3, 15-2. Wong Choon Hann, the second highest ranked Malaysian left in the tournament, won a tough match against Welshman Richard Vaughan 15-6, 15-9 to enter the men’s singles quarterfinal. Woon will next clash with Mark Constable of England in the quarterfinals. The winner of that match will meet Gopi Chand.

India’s doubles pair, Jaseel Ismail and Vincent Lobo entered the quarters with a 15-3, 10-15, 15-6 win over Gatt and Robertson of Scotland. They meet the seeded pair of J Robert and Nathan Roberts.

India’s No. 2 Nikhil Kanetkar went down to eighth seed Darren Hall of England in a tough match. Hall won 15-6, 7-15, 15-5 and will now meet another Hall, Nicholas Hall of New Zealand a bronze medallist four years ago. Nick Hall beat CanadianStuart Arthur 15-3, 15-2.