Anand enters badminton semis

Chetan Anand [ Images ] edged past Hendra Wijaya of Singapore to enter the semi-finals of the men's singles badminton event at the 18th Commonwealth Games [ Images ] in Melbourne [ Images ] on Friday.

Anand is India's [ Images ] sole medal hope in the singles as national champions Anup Sridhar and Aparna Popat bowed out after losing their men's and women's quarter-final matches respectively at the Melbourne Exhibition Centre.

Fourth seed Anand notched up a hard-fought 21-16, 13-21, 21-11 to reach the last four.

Anand will now take on Wong Choong Hann of Malaysia for a place in the finals later on Friday.

Aparna, who dumped defending champion Li Li of Singapore on Thursday, ran out of steam to go down 21-13, 21-14 against Elizabeth Cann of Jersey.

Anup Sridhar lost 21-15, 21-18 to top seed Lee Chong Wei [ Images ] of Malaysia.

Results:

Men's Singles (quarter-finals):

Chetan Anand (IND) bt Hendra Wijaya (SIN) 21-16, 13-21, 21-11

Lee Chong Wei (MAS) bt Anup Sridhar (IND) 21-15, 21-18

Wong Choong Hann (MAS) bt Lee Yen Hui Kendrick (SIN) 21-17, 22-20

Aamir Ghaffar (ENG) bt Niluka Karunaratne (SRI) 21-19, 21-19

Women's singles (quarter-finals):

Elizabeth Cann (JER) Aparna Popat (IND) 21-13, 21-14

Wong Mew Choo (MAS) bt Xing Aiyang (SIN) 21-10, 21-8

Tracey Hallam (ENG) bt Rachel Hindley (NZL) 21-11, 21-6

Susan Hughes (SCO) bt Fan Francies Liu (SIN) 21-18, 21-19.