Chai Biao and Hong Wei avenged their China Open final loss with a surprisingly quick victory over Lee Yong Dae/Yoo Yeon Seong today. 
The top-seeded Koreans were upset 21-16 21-18 – their first loss in three matches to Chai/Hong. It was a disappointing session for Korea as their players lost all four matches. Apart from Lee/Yoo, Sung Ji Hyun (Women’s Singles), Chang Ye Na/Kim So Yeong (Women’s Doubles) and Ko Sung Hyun/Kim Ha Na (Mixed Doubles) also faltered.
Sung Ji Hyun went down to the in-form Saina Nehwal (India) in Women’s Singles (Group A). Chang Ye Na/Kim So Yeong were decimated by Denmark’s Christinna Pedersen/Kamilla Rytter Juhl in Women’s Doubles (Group A), while in Mixed Doubles, Germany’s Michael Fuchs and Birgit Michels made Group A wide open beating Ko Sung Hyun/Kim Ha Na 16-21 21-19 21-19.
Chinese Taipei’s Lee Sheng Mu/Tsai Chia Hsin (featured image) powered past China’s Liu Xiaolong/Qiu Zihan in 41 minutes, 21-11 21-17, in their Men’s Doubles (Group B) encounter. China’s Mixed Doubles pairs had a good session, with top seeds Zhang Nan/Zhao Yunlei stopping England’s Chris Adcock/Gabrielle Adcock 21-14 21-17 in Group A and Liu Cheng/Bao Yixin proving too strong for Thailand’s Sudket Prapakamol/Saralee Thoungthongkam 21-7 21-14 in Group B.
Nehwal was authoritative against Sung Ji Hyun from the start. The China Open champion never relinquished control and although Sung stayed within a couple of points in the second game, the Indian closed it out 21-12 21-18.
“Women’s Singles is very tight among the top players,” said Nehwal.
“There’s very little difference between players. The Chinese are perhaps harder to beat as they never give up. They haven’t done well here, but I’m sure they’ll bounce back.”
For today’s results, click here.
BWF Newsletter
