(Changzhou, September 18) Tine Rasmussen of Denmark suffered a major setback in the women's singles yesterday, being eliminated by Chinese newcomer Wang Xin after a 2-1 tussle. In the men's singles, China’s Chen Jin managed to edge teammate Bao Chunlai to qualify for the quarterfinals.
Men's singles
The match between Chinese stars Chen Jin and Bao Chunlai became the focus of attention last evening, with Chen coming from behind to win 2-1. As Chen put it after the match, the fact that he and Bao were too familiar after so many years' training together made it difficult for them to beat each other.
Lin Dan and Chong Wei Lee defeated their respective opponents Rajiv Ouseph (ENG) and Yu Hsin Hsieh (TPE), both with 2-0, to enter the quarterfinals.
Chinese youngster Du Pengyu emerged victorious over No. 5 seed Joachim Persson of Denmark, producing a sensation on the men's court. Other winners included Sung Hwan Park (KOR) and Peter Hoeg Gade (DEN).
Women's singles
The biggest news from the second round was the elimination of Danish veteran Tine Rasmussen by Wang Xin, who turned out to be dark horse of the day with a 2-1 win (17-21, 21-16, 21-14). Rasmussen attributed her loss to an ankle injury that had bothered her for five months, while a confident Wang Xin began to set her sights on the world title.
In another women's second round match between Lu Lan and Jiang Yanjiao, both natives of the host city Changzhou, Lu beat the latter with 23-21 and 21-15 to advance to the quarterfinals, where she will encounter Zhou Mi (FRA), to whom she had lost all her six matches in 2008. Zhou Mi had a 21-7, 21-17 win over Shizuka Uchida of Japan.
Other winners included No. 2 seed Wang Lin and No. 3 seed Wang Yihan of China and Pi Hongyan of France.
Men's doubles
Team China again showed its weakness in the men's doubles, especially against their foreign counterparts. Among five of their matches in the second round yesterday four were lost to foreign combinations, which indicated there is still a lot to learn for the young Chinese pairs.
Winners from the Chinese affairs were Cai Yun/Fu Haifeng and Guo Zhendong/Xu Chen.
Women's doubles
The second round of the women's doubles saw all the eight seeded pairs win their games to qualify for the next round, with Chinese mainland shuttlers taking the lion's share by earning six berths out of a possible eight. Top seeded duo Cheng Shu/Zhao Yunlei beat teammates Deng Yuting/Lu Lu 2-0, while Pan Pan/Tian Qing and Olympic champions Du Jing/Yu Yang trounced Thai pairs Savitree Amitrapai/Vacharaport Munkit and Aroonkesorn/Voravichitchaikul respectively, both with 2-0.
Also qualifying for the quarterfinals were Jung Eun Ha/Min Jung Kim from Korea and Zhang Dan/Zhang Zhibo from Macao, China, who defeated their respective opponents Harmaine Reid (Canada)/Nicole Grether (Germany) and Tang Jinhua/Xia Huan (CHN).
Mixed doubles
Same things happened in the mixed doubles, when China took seven of the eight spots, leaving the last one to the Korean duo Sung Hyun Ko/Jung Eun Ha. Korea's top-seeded Yong Dae Lee/Hyo Jung Lee pulled out of the competition due to injury.
After the bye in the first round, China's Olympic bronze medalists He Hanbin/Yu Yang defeated their compatriots Zhang Nan/Pan Pan to book the quarters.
Other winners included Zheng Bo/Tian Qing, Xie Zhongbo/Zhang Yawen and Xu Chen/Zhao Yunlei.