YOG 2010: Confident Milne books progress to quarter-finals

By Tom Reynolds, Sportsbeat, in Singapore

GREAT Britain's Sarah Milne will need to be on her guard after booking her progress to the badminton quarter-finals at the Youth Olympic Games.

PROGRESS: Badminton hopeful Sarah Milne won all three of her round robin matches at the Youth Olympic Games (Singapore Press Holdings)

Milne progressed through her pool unbeaten, comfortably easing past Austria's Alexandra Mathis 21-11, 21-10 following victories against American Cee Nantana Ketpura and France's Lea Palermo the previous day.

On paper she should progress against Holland's Josephine Wentholt but the Dutch player proved she will be a dangerous opponent after knocking out Japan's Misaki Matsutomo, the number one seed, in the preliminaries.

"I had a reasonable draw but I never looked any further ahead than the next game because I had lost to the French girl I played in the groups before," said Milne.

"The Dutch girl is very tall and will get really good angles which makes it quite difficult for me. However, I will just have to work as hard as I can to try and get through.

"She's obviously playing really well and although I expected to be taking on the top seed, it doesn't really matter who you play.

"I need to make sure I'm at my best and then hopefully I can get myself to where I want to be and that is challenging for medals." 

  Lloyds TSB, proud partner of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games and supporter of Team GB on their journey to the 2010 Singapore Youth Olympic Games. Visit LloydsTSB.com/London2012