Hallam too strong for Karachkova (pic)

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England's Tracey Hallam reached the third round of the World Badminton Championships with a comfortable win over Ella Karachkova in Madrid.

The 11th seed took just 29 minutes to beat the Russian 10th seed 21-9 21-8 and will now meet Monthila Meemek of the Netherlands in the next round.

Hallam won Commonwealth gold in Melbourne earlier this year

"It is a good draw and I now have a fantastic opportunity," she said.

Meanwhile, England's 16th seed Andrew Smith crashed out of the men's draw with a 21-19 21-13 to Sony Dwi Kuncoro.

And 12th seeds Robert Blair and Natalie Munt recorded a 29-27 22-20 second-round win over Tsai Chia-hsin and Cheng Wen-hsing of Taiwan.

Hallam got off to the perfect start and won the first 10 points in the opening game.

And she admitted afterwards that she was surprised at the ease of the win.

"I had expected a very tough match as our previous encounters have all been very close," she said.

"I was very pleased at how I played and everything came together."

And Hallam will not face former European champion Yao Jie of Holland after the sixth seed withdrew with a leg injury to give Thailand's Meemek a walkover.

(source: BBC)

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