Chinese Xia overcomes Wijaya to advance in Singapore Open
Chinese Xia overcomes Wijaya to advance in Singapore Open
Agencies, Singapore
Top-seeded Xia Xuanze of China squeezed past Singaporean shuttler Hendra Wijaya Wednesday to advance to the second round of men's singles in badminton's Yonex-Sunrise Singapore Open.
Xia started slowly, making several unforced errors and allowing Wijaya to nearly steal the first set at 15-9. But the experienced Chinese shuttler rallied and took the opener 17-14.
He then smashed his way to a 15-12 second-set victory to seal the match. He will face Denmark's Oedum Kasper in the next round Thursday.
In the day's major upset, unseeded Pulella Gopichand of India prevailed over China's Lin Dan, the tournament's third seed. Gopichand, who lost to Lin in the first round of last year's tournament, reversed the result and won in straight sets, 15-4 and 15-2, dispatching Lin from the singles tournament.
"Everything just went to plan. The return of the 15-point format is a big bonus for me," said Gopichand, who was out for three months last year with a stress fracture.
"I could never really adjust to the shorter format but now I'm back and fit."
The contest, billed as the biggest match of the opening round, failed to live up to expectation as the Indian never allowed his opponent to settle down.
An early lead of 5-1 soon became 9-3 then 15-4 to sew up the first game and when the Indian jumped 7-1 ahead in the second game it was curtains for Lin, who looked clueless against Gopichand's solid defence and calculated attack.
In the second round, Gopichand faces Hong Kong's Ng Wei, a 15- 8, 15-5 winner over England's Andrew Smith.
Another Indian to send a seeded player packing in the first round was Nikhil Kanetkar, who beat number six seed Kenneth Jonassen of Denmark.
In the women's doubles action, the top seeded Danes Pernille Harder and Mette Schjoldager rolled over Fatimah Kumin Lim and Jiang Yanmei of Singapore 11-1 and 11-1.
The tournament's fattened purse - a total of US$170,000 prize money is on offer - has attracted 319 players from 21 countries, compared with 197 nominations at last year's tournament.
More prize money means the Singapore competition has been upgraded from a four- to a five-star event and now ranks alongside major regional tournaments including the Korea Open and Japan Open.
Nine of the world's top male players and eight of the top 10 women were competing at Singapore's Indoor Stadium.