Ji Xinpeng, Candra and Sigit out

Ji Xinpeng, Candra and Sigit out

JAKARTA (Agencies): Olympic champion Ji Xinpeng of China was sent crashing out of the World Badminton Championships in Seville, Spain, on Wednesday losing in a stunning upset to unknown Hong Kong player Agus Hariyanto.

Ji, seeded 11 for the tournament, was beaten 12-15, 15-11, 15- 4 by Indonesian-born Agus in an early second-round singles match that also saw wins for India's Pullela Gopichand and Denmark's Peter Gade Christensen.

All England champion and sixth seed Gopichand battled through a testing tussle with Kevin Han of the U.S., finally winning 15- 6, 11-15, 15-7.

World number two Gade Christensen had an easier time, breezing past Sweden's Martin Hagberg 15-7, 15-1 in an all-Scandinavian tie.

Indonesia's best hope men's doubles Candra Wijaya and Sigit Budiarto, the 1997 winner, had to bow out to South Koreans Kim Dong-moon and Ha Tae-kwon 15-9, 15-12 in a tough 40-minute match.

Their defeat leaves the country's hope to bring home a title in the men's doubles on All England winners Tony Gunawan and Halim Heryanto, who beat Japanese Yuzo Kubota and Takuya Katayama 15-3, 15-4 Tuesday. The other pair of Flandy and Eng Hian had succumbed to arch-rivals Pramote Teerawiwatana and Tesana Panvisvas of Thailand 15-11, 15-1.

But it was Agus's remarkable upset of Ji that had the San Pablo Stadium abuzz on Wednesday.

Ji never got going against the Hong Kong player, who caused the Sydney Olympic singles gold medalist no end of problems with some clever variation and teasing drop shots.

The win is the biggest of Agus's career, and the world number 25-ranked Hong Kong player leapt for joy on achieving the win.

"I can't believe it. I knew I had a chance, this is the best thing that has ever happened to me in badminton," Agus told AFP, who looked almost as shell-shocked as Ji after the victory.

The 24-year-old player moved to Hong Kong four years ago with his family from Indonesia and has represented the former British colony for the past two years.

Chinese head coach Li Yongbo warned Ji that he might lose his place in the natioanl team if he could not find back his form soon enough.

"To tell you the truth, I am not satisfied with his performance today," Li said, as quoted by Xinhua. "I think two reasons have resulted in his defeat. The first is that he was not mentally tough. He did not have the strong desire to win. You could see his pace was too slow.

"The second one is that he must have belittled the rival. He must be thinking that he could win the match trailing by a big margin. He failed to notice it had been too late."

Hong Kong coach Chan Chi-choi, who coaches Agus at the Hong Kong Sports Institute, was beaming with pride after watching the player torment Ji into defeat.

"We knew we had a chance before the match," Chan said. "It was always going to be tough but we have seen that Ji does not play as well when he is under pressure.

Agus will play seventh-seeded Indonesian Marlev Mainaky in the third round. Marlev defeated Thailand's Boonsak Polsana 15-8, 10- 15, 15-11 to advance to Thursday's matches.

In the mixed doubles, Bambang Kusprianto and Minarti Timur beat Chen Qiqiu and Chen Lin 15-12, 15-9 to meet Kim Dong-moon and Ra Kyung-min of South Korea. The Koreans defeated German pair Bjorn Siegemund and Nicole Pitro 15-6, 15-7.

Meanwhile, Nova and Vita defeated Lee Jae-jin and Hwang Yu-mi also of South Korea 15-8, 15-8. The Indonesian pair will challenge Chinese Zhang Jun and Gao Ling who beat Daniel Shirley and Sara Runesten-Petersen of New Zealand 15-13, 15-5. (nvn)