Thursday, September 17, 2009

Malaysia’s Wong Mew Choo, who stunned everyone by winning of the 2007 China Open, was shown the exit leaving Denmark’s Tine Rasmussen and Hong Kong’s Zhou Mi and Wang Chen with the job of denying the hosts of taking the women’s singles crown.

In the men’s doubles, three-time world champion Lin Dan and World No 1 Lee Chong Wei took a step closer to their expected semi-final clash when they beat their respective opponents in the first round of the Li Ning China Masters 2009 in Changzhou on Wednesday.

Mew Choo, whose career has been bogged by injuries, fell to China’s Jiang Yanjiao in straight games, 21-17, 21-11 while Tine was also given a tough time before securing a 12-21, 21-15, 21-13 win over China’s Zhang Yuchun.

Tine will take on Wang Xin in the second round on Thursday and joining her is fellow European Pi Hongyan of France. Pi’s game against Hong Kong’s Yip Pui Yin went to the wire but the former Chinese national prevailed to win 30-29, 21-18.

However, if all goes according to script, Tine and Pi are expected to clash in the quarter-finals.

Zhou Mi and Wang Chen also progressed, thanks to their 21-15, 21-18 and 21-13, 23-21 wins over Korea’s Jang Soo Young and Germany’s Nicole Grether respectively.

In the men’s singles, Chong Wei shrugged off the challenge from China youngster Lu Qicheng before winning 21-8, 21-16 and will take on England’s Rajiv Ouseph in the second round.

Wong Choong Hann, runner-up in Macau and Chinese Taipei last month, was shown the exit after the Malaysian fell to a 21-9, 21-17 defeat to former world junior champion Chen Long.

Lin Dan, on the hand, had an easy 21-13, 21-13 win over compatriot Qiu Yanbo but is expected to face a tougher time against Chinese Taipei’s Hsieh Yu Hsin in the second round.

Malaysia’s doubles challenge will begin in earnest on Thursday with former World No 1 Choong Tan Fook-Lee Wan Wah, playing as independent shuttlers now, opening their campaign against China’s Chai Biao-Zhang Nan.

Gan Teik Chai-Tan Bin Shen also get their campaign off the ground with a match against Huang Haitao-Lei Weiliang. Both Malaysian pairs were given first round byes.

Following the withdrawal of top seeds Lee Yong Dae-Jung Jae Sung, China’s Li Rui-Rao Yuqiang moved into the second round and will play compatriots Gua Zhendong-Xu Chen while Cai Yun-Fu Haifeng, the second seeds, will take on Guo Junjie-Li Gen in the second round.

In the women’s doubles, the focus will be on the China-Thailand match-ups with Pan Pan-Qing Tian and Olympic champions Du Jing-Yu Yang taking on Savitree Amitrapai-Vacharaport Munkit and Duanganong Aroonkesorn-Kunchala Voravichitchaikul respectively.

In the mixed doubles, there is only one match which features pairs from different countries with the bulk of matches featuring pairs from China.

Seventh seeds Yoo Yeon Seong-Kim Min Jung will take on China’s Chen Xu-Zhao Yunlei.