Japan’s Tago packs off seventh seed Persson at badminton worlds

Hyderabad: Unseeded Japanese Kenichi Tago shocked Danish seventh seed Joachim Persson 16-21, 21-14, 21-13 in the men’s singles first round at the World Badminton Championships on Tuesday.

Tago fought back from a game down to win in 57 minutes on a day when the championships were hit by a H1N1 virus threat, as a Malaysian coach was quarantined with swine flu symptoms. Eight people have died of swine flu in India, with hundreds infected. Andhra Pradesh, of which Hyderabad is the capital, has so far recorded 76 positive cases.Ninth seeded Hsieh Yu Hsing of Taiwan scraped past India’s Arvind Bhat 21-14 19-21 24-22 in just over an hour in another first round match. Indonesia’s former Olympic and world champion Taufik Hidayat and Chinese second seed Chen Jin were scheduled to open their campaigns later. The championships are being played under tight security after England pulled out citing a “specific terrorist threat”, following media reports the event could be targeted by the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba. The militant group has been blamed for the raid on Mumbai in November in which 166 people were killed. Bureau Report