Hallam hits high to beat Denmark's Martin

Britain's Tracey Hallam beat the former world champion and Sydney silver medallist Camilla Martin of Denmark in the second round of the Olympic women's badminton tournament yesterday.

Britain's Tracey Hallam beat the former world champion and Sydney silver medallist Camilla Martin of Denmark in the second round of the Olympic women's badminton tournament yesterday.

Hallam won the first set 11-2, but the seventh-seeded Martin fought back to take the second set 11-5 before the Briton won the decider 13-10. "I said that I wanted to enjoy today's match and I did. I tried to keep control over her," Hallam said. "Although I felt tired during the match yesterday, my body got used to it and today I felt better."

Sixth-seeded Jun Jae-youn, of South Korea, lost to Cheng Shao-Chieh, of Taiwan, 3-11, 11-6, 11-4. Mia Audina, of the Netherlands, seeded fourth, lost her first set to Indonesia's Aparna Popat but came back for a 9-11, 11-1, 11-3 win.

"What changed at the second and third set was my concentration. I focused on the game and I won," Audina said.

The top three seeds, Gong Ruina, Zhang Ning and Zhou Mi, all from China, went through comfortably. Wang Chen, of Hong Kong, lost a set and was close to defeat by Yao Jie, of the Netherlands, before turning the match around to come through 8-11, 13-10, 11-8.

The last quarter-final place went to Petya Nedelcheva, of Bulgaria, who beat Seo Yeon-hee, of South Korea, 7-11, 11-5, 11-8.

In the mixed doubles, the South Koreans Kim Dong-moon and Ra Kyung-min showed why they are world champions and unbeaten for more than a year, beating Dutch husband-and-wife team Chris and Lotte Bruil 15-4, 15-6. Nathan Robertson and Gail Emms, of Britain, also progressed.