Chong Wei advances to 2nd round, Lin Dan dumped

KUALA LUMPUR: National singles ace Datuk Lee Chong Wei needed only 26 minutes to stroll past his opponent from Taiwan in the first round of the China Open Badminton Championship yesterday.

Chong Wei, who had last won the tournament in 2015, did not face any trouble defeating Hsu Jen-hao of Taiwan in straight sets, 21-5, 21-7.

The tournament’s seventh seed will meet either India’s Sourabh Varma or Brice Leverdez from France in the next round today.

Two national women’s doubles pairs also qualified for the next round as Chow Mei Kuan-Lee Meng Yean defeated Xiao Min Lin-Wu Fang Chien of Taiwan 21-6, 17-21, 21-9, and Vivian HooWoon Khe Wei beat Chiang Kai Hsin-Hung Shih Han also from Taiwan 15-21, 21-19, 21-11.

Meanwhile, badminton legend Lin Dan saved seven match points before being dumped out of the first round, stunned by Indonesia’s world number 17 Jonatan Christie.

The 21-19, 21-16 defeat will ramp up speculation that the 34year-old Lin, widely regarded as the best badminton player of all time, may soon call it quits as he approaches the end of his brilliant career.

Seeded third, Lin, a five-time China Open champion, was guilty of a catalogue of errors in going down to Christie in 42 minutes in a shock upset in the Chinese city of Fuzhou.

The 20-year-old Christie plays Hong Kong’s Angus Ng in the second round.

“When we shook hands before the match I felt his hand was cold and I sensed he was nervous,” Christie, who lost to Lin in straight games at their last meeting in June, told the official BWF World Superseries website.

“I realised that even though he was a past World and Olympic champion, he could get nervous too, so that made me confident.”

Christie added: “One of the best days of my life, I beat Lin Dan at his home crowd.”

But for a late rally by Lin, the result might have been even more embarrassing.

Christie had an astounding 11 match points, and even though Lin clawed back seven of them, the Chinese played a weak shot wide of the sideline to go tumbling out of the tournament.