Taipei, May 22 (CNA) The Taiwanese badminton team on Monday defeated Russia 4-1 in a preliminary round match held on Australia's Gold Coast to book a spot in the quarterfinals of the 2017 Total BWF Sudirman Cup.
Russia is now out of the competition after having played and lost to South Korea in an earlier round robin encounter.
Taiwan started off with a win in the mixed doubles, as Taiwan's Lee Chia-hsin and Wang Chi-lin dispatched the Russian duo of Ekaterina Bolotova and Vladimir Ivanov with relative ease 21-19, 21-11.
Although struggling against Sergey Sirant in the men's singles, Taiwanese Chou Tien-chen (周天成) secured a second point for Taiwan by overcoming the Russian 21-7, 18-21, 21-16.
Lee Jhe-huei and Lee Yang then dropped the only point for Taiwan by losing to their Russian opponents 19-21, 21-19, 21-17 in the men's doubles.
But Taiwan clinched the 4-1 victory with wins in the women's singles and women's doubles.
Taiwan will face South Korea in its second preliminary round match on Wednesday. Both teams have already booked their places in the quarterfinals, but the winner will get a more favorable seeding.
Held biennially, the Sudirman Cup Gold Coast 2017 championship will run until Sunday.
