(from baofe.co.uk) RICHARD VAUGHAN and Aamir Ghaffar were the first-day heroes at the Yonex All England Championships at the National Indoor Arena in Birmingham today. Welshman Vaughan, the highest ranked British player, caused a sensation when he knocked out world champion Xia Xuanze in three games. Then England’s new National champion Aamir Ghaffar put paid to eighth seed Bao Chunlai to join Vaughan in the last 16. Caerphilly’s Vaughan, ranked No 30, beat Xia 15-9, 7-15, 15-10 – and a Chinese coach in the Welsh camp helped plot his downfall. Vaughan said: “I had a serious leg operation in July and since then I have worked on my technique with our new Chinese coach, Zhou Jun Ling. “This is the first tournament I’ve played since the operation where I’ve been back to full fitness. “I tired a bit in the second game so the coach told me to get out and get some quick points in the third to put the pressure on Xia. It worked because he started making mistakes.” Vaughan now meets Indonesia’s Taufik Hidayat, the 1999 and 2000 runner-up. Hidayat, the 16th seed, took just 28 minutes to beat Canada’s Stefan Wojcikiewicz 15-3, 15-5 having eased through in the first round against Denmark’s Kasper Oedum 15-7, 15-13. Ghaffar, ranked world No 68, said after his 7-15, 15- 10, 15-3 win over Bao: “I was nervous, Even in the third when I was so far up (10-0) I was still nervous. “But Steve Butler, the England singles coach, says all the right things. He’s worked so hard with me. This was for Steve. He knew what I could do. Until you win a match like that, you don’t know how good you are. It gives you a boost. “I proved I can compete with the best in the world. I haven’t even looked at the draw for the next game.” In fact, he plays 14th seed Ronald Susilo of Singapore on Wednesday night. His win made up for disappointing defeats for national women’s champion Tracey Hallam and Jill Pittard. But Scottish national champion Susan Hughes is through to the second round where she joins England No 2 and eight-times National champion Julia Mann. Hughes plays Hallam;s Korean conqueror Kim Kyeung-Ran tomorrow lunchtime while Mann meets world champion and second seed Zhang Ning of China.
