Bad Start for US in London World Badminton Championship

The U.S. contingent in the World Badminton Championship in London suffered a jolt on the opening day of the tournament Monday as the American players lost their five out of six matches.

In the very first match Men's Doubles pair of Howard Bach and Tony Gunawan lost to Malaysia's Mohd Zakry Abdul Latif and Thien How Hoon 17-21, 14-21.

Bach and Gunawan could not be seen in touch as the Malaysians did not give them any chance to get settled on the Wembley Arena's court no 1.

The Malaysians easily cruised into the second round by overpowering the 2005 world champions with help of their perfect smashes and spectacular coordination on the whole court.

The Americans showed little endurance in the beginning of the second game but could not develop it and crashed out of the tournament in the first round.

The disappointment did not end on court number 1 only, even court No. 2 and 3 of the Wimbley Arena also witnessed America's top most players crashing out of the tournament in the first round only.

This year's Peru International Women's Singles champion Rena Wang lost to Italy's Agnese Allegrini 17-21, 17-21.

Another Men's Doubles pair of Sameera Gunatileka and Vincent Nguy was also shown the exit when they were defeated by Rudd Bosch and Koen Ridder of Netherlands 8-21, 7-21 on the court No. 2 of Wimbley Arena.

In Women's Doubles also the poor show by American continued and the pair of Eva Lee and Paula Lynn Obnana bowed down the 2010 Commonwealth Games gold medalist Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa of India. The Indians who relied on their powerful smashes and perfect low serves won the match 21-9, 21-18.

The Americans, who looked helpless and out of touch in the first game, did come back in the second game but by that time the damage was done and the Indians had completely taken every corner of the court.

Court No. 4 also repeated the same story when American Men's Singles player Sattawat Pongnairat lost to Mathieu Lo Ying Ping of France 13-21, 15-21.

The only good news of the tournament for the American badminton fans came from court No. 3 when sister tandem of Rena Wang and Iris Wang giving the only ray of hope with their win over Janne Elst and Jelske Snoek of Belgium. Wang sisters showed their best game in both the games and won the match 21-6, 21-11 without giving their Belgian opponents any chance to dominate them. Smashes, drop shots and swift change of positions were the main weapons which the American sisters used to send the Belgian pair out of London.

Wang sisters will be meeting Singapore's Shinta Mulia Sari and Satoko Suetsuna in the second round on Tuesday.

The World Badminton Championship is being held at historic Wembley Arena in London from August 8-14, 2011. The championship is also serving as the official Olympic badminton test for the 2012 Olympics.