Olympic champion Chen Long out of All England
BIRMINGHAM, United Kingdom: China’s Olympic champion Chen Long was dumped out of the All- England Open on Thursday, losing in the second round to Tanongsak Saensomboonsuk, the world number 12 from Thailand, 21-16, 21-19.
Seven months and an absence of competition made Chen vulnerable and so did Tanongsak’s sensible strategy of not too frequently attacking an opponent who creates brickwall mid- court defence and turns it into damaging counterattack.
Chen fought hard to close a fivepoint deficit to 19-19 in the second game, and
Every player wants to win this title and I did too. My ambition is to get back my form. Chen Long, two-time world champion
might well have improved had the match gone to a decider. Instead on the next point he hurtled a smashed wide, and then lifted the shuttle a little too short to defend against Tanongsak’s attack on match point. “Every player wants to win this title and I did too,” said 28-yearold Chen. “My ambition is to get back my form.” The upset could help Lee Chong Wei, the top-seeded three times former champion from Malaysia, who survived for the second day with an ailing knee and who might now meet Tanongsak in the semis. L ee a gain proved himself once again a master of adaptabi lity and economy while enduring the discomfort of his knee injury and overcoming Wang Tzu Wei , a young and ambitious world number 21 from Taiwan, en route to the quarter-finals.
Lee defended economically, controlled most of the rallies at a pace at which he felt comfortable, and mixed up the patterns cleverly as he squeezed through 21-18, 2118.“I just tried to forget my injury,” the world number one said, when asked what he had been trying to do.
O ne hour after Chen’s defeat, the other Olympic singles champion almost followed him to the exit.
Carolina Marin was within two points of defeat at 17-19 in the second game against He Bingjiao, a 19-year-old left-hander who looks like China’s next great women’s singles hope, before surviving 1521, 21-19, 21-10.
Marin next plays Ratchanok Intanon, the former world champion from Thailand, while the top seeded Tai Tzu Ying saved three game points in a 27-25, 2111 win over Minatsu Mitani of Japan and faces Pusarla Sindhu, the Olympic silver medallist. The other Indian, Saina Nehwal also reached the last eight, despite an ongoing recovery from a knee operation. So did Lin Dan, the three-time Olympic champion and men’s titleholder, who moved well enough during a 21-16, 21-11 win over compatriot Huang Yuxiang, and kept alive sentimental hopes of a Lee-Lin farewell in Sunday’s showdown.
Lin next plays Viktor Axelsen, the World Super Series champion from Denmark, who overcame Zhao Junpeng of China, 21-10, 2111.
Ng Ka Long, the eighth seed from Hong Kong, was beaten 2116, 21-14 by Shi Yuqi, the 21-yearold world number 10 from China, while Jan Jorgensen, the second seeded Dane, was beaten 21-16, 2113 by Kazumasa Sakai, the world number 53 from Japan. — AFP