RUSSIAN OPEN: MUGGERIDGE INJURED; FALLS TO KOREAN ROOKIE

** This NEW SHUTTLENWS REPORT is presented by badminton world champions YANG YANG and ZHAO JIAN HUA and by YANG YANG BADMINTON PRODUCTS **

August 29, 1997 (NEW SHUTTLENWS) - Women's singles second-seed Joanne Muggeridge of England was injured in one of today's early matches at the Russian Open badminton tournament in Moscow and she had to surrender an almost certain place in the quarterfinals to Korean newcomer Park Yoon Kying. With the score at 10-6, the stocky English player was about to clinch the first game of the best-of-three match when injury struck and rendered her unable to continue playing.

England though managed to place a player in the women's singles quarterfinals as Tanya Woodward upset Katarzyna Krasowska of Poland, the seventh seed, 11-6, 5-11 and 12-10. However, Woodward's chances of getting to the semifinals are dim since her next opponent will be top-seed Camilla Martin of Denmark, the European champion who stands head and shoulders above all the Western women's singles players in badminton skills. In her early match today, the Dane easily defeated Kang Mi Hwa of Korea 11-1 and 11-4.

In another upset in women's singles, Kim Kying Ran, another Korean rookie on the international badminton Open circuit, took out eight-seed Karolina Ericsson of Sweden 11-9 and 11-1.

In men's singles, Thomas Sogaard of Denmark, seeded fifth, was surprised by Stanislav Pukhov of Russia 13-15 and 5-15. Pukhov became the only Russian left in the singles competition at this Russian Open when compatriot Pavel Suvarov, the seventh seed, fell to Denmark's Anders Boesen 15-10 and 15-8.

Meanwhile, Sogaard's teammate, Peter Janum, the eighth seed, was eliminated by the long arms of English player Colin Haughton 12-15, 15-9 and 4-15.

Poul-Erik Hoyer-Larsen of Denmark, the top-seed in men's singles, gave another badminton lesson to training partner and English hope Mark Constable 15-5 and 15-7, while second seed Thomas Stuer-Lauridsen, another of the Danish singles aces, waltzed over Jacek Niedwiedzki of Poland 15-4 and 15-4.

Results of the other early singles round-of-16 matches today:

Men's Singles
Rikard Magnusson (Sweden) beat Mihail Popov (Bulgaria) 15-3 15-5
Kenneth Jonassen (Denmark) beat Konstantin Tatranov (Ukraine) 15-4 15-7
Henrik Bengtsson (Sweden) beat Ilkka Nyqvist (Finland) 8-15 15-12 15-0

Women's Singles
Mette Sorensen (Denmark) beat Elena Sukhareva (Russia) 11-1 11-1
Margit Borg (Sweden) beat Anna Yefremova (Russia) 11-4 11-1
Anne Sondergaard (Denmark) beat Natalya Dyachkova (Russia) 11-3 11-2
Mette Pedersen (Denmark) beat Irina Yakusheva (Russia) 11-3 11-3

(mig)