China's men on march, women's number one Wang loses

Published>Fri, Aug 27 10 01:37 AM

Holder Lin Dan and pretender Chen Jin bulldozed their way into the last eight of the world badminton championships as China bared their might on Thursday.

Lin beat old rival and compatriot Bao Chunlai 21-16 21-13 and Chen saw off unseeded Ashton Chen of Singapore 21-17 21-10.

There was a setback in the women's event where world number one Wang Yihan lost out to battling Japanese Eriko Hirose 20-22 21-16 21-18 but with three other Chinese going through the chances of gold remained high.

In the men's event, Lin and Chen were joined in the last eight by world number one Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia who brushed aside English champion Rajiv Ouseph 21-9 21-9.

Former Olympic and world champion Taufik Hidayat, an easy 21-8 21-14 winner over Tanongsak Saensomboonsuk of Thailand, joined the party along with 33-year-old Peter Gade.

Gade beat Germany's Marc Zwiebler 21-14 21-15 just 16 hours after his second-round match on Wednesday.

"I had to play intelligently and not let Marc seize the initiative as I had still to recover from the match last night," the Dane told reporters.

WOMEN'S SHOCK

In the women's event, Hirose triumphed in a 75-minute marathon against Wang.

"It is truly a memorable moment for me as this is my greatest-ever achievement," said the Japanese. "You do not often beat the world number one and doing it at this level is really something I did not expect."

Wang said: "Eriko was in her best form and my game was not really up to expectations. I am sad to have lost but credit to my opponent."

In the quarter-finals Hirose meets another of the Chinese battalion, seventh seed Wang Lin who beat 12th seed Pui Yin Yip of Hong Kong 21-13 21-17.

Indian second seed Saina Nehwal eased into the last eight with a 21-14 21-18 success over Russia's Ella Diehl.

The biggest cheer of the day came when Chinese-born Pi Hongyan, who plays for France, rallied to beat South Korea's Kim Moon-Hi 16-21 21-15 21-14.

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