Nirupama shocks

BANGKOK, DEC 13: Nirupama Vaidyanathan today made ample amends for her loss in the team event by toppling fifth seed Janet-Whids Lee in the singles second round here. The India No 1, who had a bye into the round of 16, scored a good 6-4, 7-6 5 win over the Chinese Taipei player, ranked No 86 to Nirupama8217;s 173.

Mahesh Bhupathi and Prahlad Srinath also moved up into the last 16 in the men8217;s singles while Syed Fazaluddin and Manisha Malhotra advanced in mixed doubles. Bhupathi won his opening match against Ghareeb Mohammed of Kuwait 6-2, 6-1 and Srinath defeated another Kuwaiti, Adel al-Shatti 6-2, 6-3 in their opening-round matches. Fazal and Manisha defeated Aqueel Khan and Nida Waseem 6-4, 6-2 in the first round.

Nirupama now has another tough match on hand as she runs into the second seed, Li Fang of China, who beat South Korean Jeon Mi-Ra 6-3, 7-5.