Many Seeded Players Ousted at HK Badminton Open

Chinese youngsters without world ranking however stole the show when they outgunned many seeded players on the second day of the 30,000-US dollar Hong Kong Open Badminton Championships Tuesday.

In the women's singles' first round, unseeded Chinese Dong Fang dismissed seventh seed Fatimah Kumin Lim of Singapore with an easy score of 11-1 and 11-4 while her teammate Wei Yan, who entered top eight in the five-star China Open a week ago, outclassed eighth seed Ng Ching of Hong Kong, China, with an identical score.

To make the host more disappointed, pre-favorite Wang Chen, who was China's third single player at the 1996 Uber Cup finals in Hong Kong three years ago and now representing Hong Kong, China, had to withdraw because of chickenpox.

The other six seeds sailed into the next round. Among them, top two seeds Chan Ya-ling of Chinese Taipei and Yuli Marfuah of Indonesia made easy works by beating Park Hyo Sun of South Korea and Kivya Ramesh of India respectively in straight sets.

Two other men's singles seeded shuttlers were out of race in the second round.

Indonesia-born Hariyanto Agus of Hong Kong, China, ranked 333rd in the world, clinched a third round berth by beating former Asian champion Jeffer Rosobin of Indonesia 15-10, 15-10.

"I was not in top form nowadays, that's why I lost the match," said Jeffer.

Fourth seed Ng Wei of Hong Kong, China, was defeated by a steady Lee Huyn Ii of South Korea 15-8 and 15-2.

"I am very tired recently and I could not move fast," explained Ng who captured two titles in the International Badminton Federation sanctioned A-class tournament -- Australia Open and Brazil Open recently.

Top seed Rio Suryana of Australia met little resistance from Wai Tsz-kit of Hong Kong, China, by securing a top 16 berth at 15-5 and 15-2.

Second seed Chen Wei of China gave his opponent a badminton lesson as he made an easy job by powering past Yuen Sui-hung of Hong Kong, China, 15-2 and 15-1.

In other matches on Tuesday, China's mixed duo Guo Siwei and Chen Lin held off top seeds Joachim Tesche and Wiebke Schrempf of Germany 15-4 and 15-12.

The one-star event is to close on Sunday. (Xinhua)


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