Contributed by Gareth Berlee

New Delhi, Friday, April 16, 2010 – Singapore's outing at the Badminton Asia Championships in New Delhi ended today when brothers Hendri Kurniawan and Hendra Wijaya lost to Chinese Taipei's Chieh Min Fang and Sheng Mu Lee in the men's doubles quarter-finals.

The first set saw a neck-and-neck battle with local shuttlers Hendri and Hendra tasting victory in just 16 minutes with a score of 21-17. However, their semi-final hopes were dashed as they lost the second set 12-21 and subsequently the tie-breaking third set 13-21.

A disappointed but determined Hendra said, "We fought hard but were unfortunate. Although we lost here, our next big outing will be the Li Ning Singapore Open in June and we will train even harder."

Earlier in the tournament, the brothers eased past Chinese Taipei’s Liao Min Chun and Wu Chun Wei 21-12, 21-18 and outclassed Thailand’s Nuttaphon and Sarayut 21-10, 21-13 yesterday.

Also in action yesterday was Zhang Beiwen, who put up a gutsy display against seventh seed Wong Mew Choo of Malaysia before losing 22-20, 9-21, 14-21 in the women’s singles round of 16.

Zhang said: “The atmosphere of the game was pretty good but I made too many mistakes and was not patient enough. I hope to do better at the Li Ning Singapore Open.”

Her team-mate Xing Aiying lost against Thai fifth seed Salakjit Ponsana 10-21, 21-17, 19-21.

Vanessa Neo and Fu Mingtian ousted Bangladesh’s Rozina Akter and Konica Rani Adhikary 21-12, 21-8 in the women’s doubles but lost to Thailand's Savitree Amitapai and Vacharaphon Munkit 15-21, 20-22.

CEO of Singapore Badminton Association Edwin Pang, said on the local shuttlers' performances: “This tournament and the next couple of competitions that our players are going to, will serve as a useful tune-up for the Li-Ning Singapore Open in June. I look forward to our players learning from their experiences in these competitions so that they can raise their level of play to match that of their world-class opponents in the Super Series before the home crowd.”

Other Results
Ashton Chen/Derek Wong (SIN) 0 Chieh Min Fang/Sheng Mu Lee (Chinese Taipei) 2
16-21, 9-21
Xing Aiying/Zhang Beiwen (SIN) 0 Aparna Balan/Shruti Kurian (India) 2
14-21, 9-21
Yao Lei/Shinta Mulia Sari (SIN) 0 Pan Pan/Qing Tian (China)
14-21, 11-21