All England Open badminton, day one: Lin Dan suffers first ever first-spherical exit on an afternoon of upsets
While PV Sindhu’s first-round defeat got here as a surprise (albeit in opposition to a confirmed performer in Sung Ji Hyun), that changed into rarely the most significant upset on day one at the All England Open badminton championships in Birmingham.
Two of the sport’s biggest names — China’s Lin Dan and Chen Long — who have won a total of 8 titles between them, both suffered surprise first-round defeats at the yr’s first marquee event.
While Dan isn’t the pressure he once changed into, he becomes still the runner-up remaining 12 months. He has a knack for acting at the massive occasions, and that is why Kanta Tsuneyama’s defeat of the Chinese celebrity, with a scoreline of 19-21 21-14 21-7, turned into one in every of the most important results on the primary day that noticed many a seed fall throughout classes.
Hong Kong’s Ng Ka Long Angus defeated eighth seed Anthony Sinisuka Ginting, and Denmark’s Rasmus Genke downed Chinese fourth seed, Chen Long.
Long, the reigning Olympic gold winner, wasted a 14-nine lead within the second set before crashing out 21-15, 21-17. Gemke termed this the most significant win of his career.
“It’s my largest fulfillment, and I’m delighted. He’s one of the world’s nice and has been at the top for ten years, so I knew I needed to be a hundred consistent with cent geared up from the start. I think he changed into a bit nervous and made some errors inside the first sport, but he got higher inside the 2d, and I needed to maintain my stage high all the time,” stated Gemke. Dan, who received the title right here six times, and Chen, the 2013 and 2015 winner, had in no way been sent packing in the first round, mentioned Xinhua news employer.
Third seed Chou Tien Chen of Chinese Taipei also made a shock exit as he became overwhelmed with the aid of China’s Huang Yuxiang 21-14, sixteen-21, 24-22. Kenta Nishimoto of Japan went past the fifth seed and former world No 1 Son Wan Ho of South Korea 23-21, 14-five because of the latterly retired harm.
In the ladies’ singles, Sung Ji Hyun prevailed over 5th seed Sindhu in a thrilling match-up, wherein the Indian superstar needed to shop as many as 8 whole points earlier than sooner or later going down. The different big disillusioned women’s singles turned into two-time All England runner-up Ratchanok Intanon.
The seventh seed from Thailand was ousted by using unseeded Chen Xiaoxin from China 21-23, 24-22, 21-14 in a 75-minute encounter. Xiaoxin earned her first win over Intanon in six matches after saving an in-shape factor.
Nicknamed the Minions, -time guys’ doubles champions Marcus Fernaldi Gideon and Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo lost out to Liu Cheng and Zhang Nan as nicely. The Japanese pair were the top seeds in guys’ doubles and defeated 21-19, 20-22, 21-17 in a sixty-seven-minute marathon.
He Jing and Tan Qiang also despatched the second seed in guys’ doubles packing, defeating Li Junhui and Liu Yuchen 18-21, 21-18, 24-22 in 56 mins.
In women’s doubles, Misaki Matsutomo and Ayaka Takahashi — reigning Olympic champions and 2016 All England winners — have been beaten using Korea’s Chang Ye Na/Jung Kyung Eun, 21-17, 10-21, 21-19. The Japanese pair had been the second one seeds at this year’s occasion.
