Super Dan, Lee bite the dust

Badminton India Open

In a rare occurrence, the two greats of world badminton- Lin Dan and Lee Chong Wei- were ousted simultaneously in the second round of Yonex Sunrise India Open at Siri Fort Sports Complex on Thursday.

Both big upsets unfolded on court 2. The two-time Olympic champion and five-time World Champion Dan, seeded fourth, was shocked by World No 13 Korean Wan Ho Son 13-21, 20-22. To the shock and chagrin of the sparse crowd, Chong Wei, turning after his well-known nemesis, met the same fate.

The top-seeded Malaysian went down to World No 14 Nan Wei of Hong Kong 19-21, 19-21. Chong Wei, who has won the India Open three times, was backed by the vociferous crowd till the last, so much so that India’s Saina Nehwal playing on the adjacent court fought out her first game completely unnoticed.

It was only when Chong Wei bowed out, that the spectators turned their attention Saina. The ace Indian, however, sailed through on the day of upsets, which witnessed five top 10 players exiting from the tournament on Thursday. The list of causalities include third-seeded Dane Jan O Jorgensen, who lost fighting to China’s Xue Song 18-21, 21-15, 14-21, sixth-seeded Chinese Taipei’ s Tien Chen Chou, who went down to Denmark’s Hans-Kristian Vittinghus 12-21, 12-21 and  seventh-seeded Tian Houwei of China who was defeated by German Marc  Zwiebler Germany 21-18, 19-21, 21-23 in a hard fought contest.

Saina, ranked sixth, and seeded second made a cautious start against Thailand’s Nitchaon Jindapon before cruising to a 21-19, 21-14 victory to seal a quarterfinal berth. Joining her in the last eight stage was compatriot PV Sindhu who edged past Thailand’s Busanan Ongbumrungphan 17-21, 21-19, 21-16 in a match that lasted an hour and 16 minutes.

Among other Indians, Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy suffered a 19-21, 12-21 loss to Chinese Taipei’s Chen Hung Ling and Chi-Lin Wang, while Jishnu Sanyal and Shivam Sharma lost 17-21, 15-21 to Chinese Taipei’s Lee Sheng Mu and Tsai Chia Hsin in another men’s doubles match. Meanwhile, second-seeded Kento Momota of Japan defeated Hong Kong's NG Ka Long Angus 21-16, 21-11.

Home players failed to get past the pre-quarter-finals stage in mixed doubles and men’s doubles. However, Mohita Sahdev and Sanjana Santhosh advanced in women’s doubles by defeating CH Poornima and Rachita Sahdev 21-16, 21-7.