China's champion Zhang suffers scare

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20080810China's champion Zhang suffers scare

China's Olympic champion Zhang Ning suffered a scare at the Olympic badminton in her first women's singles match Sunday before recovering to defeat Thailand's Ponsana Salakjit.

Zhang, seeded second, lost the first game against the tenacious Thai, ranked just 29 in the world, before steadying and then storming home to win 21-23, 21-17, 21-7, and move into the last round of 16.

"She is very strong and runs really fast. Although I'm older, I thought the one who could hold on will win and I did.," Zhang said.

Zhang, 33, was included in the Chinese team despite slipping down the world rankings to seven.