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| April 5, 2003 | Saturday | Safar 2, 1424 |
Top seeded Chen sent packing by compatriot
TOKYO, April 4: Top seed and badminton world number one Chen Hong was sent crashing out of the Japan Open by Chinese compatriot Lin Dan here Friday as former champion Peter Gade bowed out.
Lin edged past Chen 8-15, 15-10, 17-14 in a tightly contested quarterfinal and now plays Kenneth Jonassen of Denmark, seeded four in the semifinals, who beat South Korea’s Shon Seung-Mo 15-3, 15-7.
The other semifinal will see China’s second seed Xia Xuanze play Asian Games gold medallist Taufik Hidayat of Indonesia. Hidayat overcame a stiff challenge from Hong Kong’s Ng Wei before prevailing 15-13, 171-5 in 65 minutes.
Xia advanced to the last four after ending two-time champion Gade’s challenge in straight games.
Xia, who defeated the Dane in a bronze medal playoff at the Sydney Olympics, repeated his performance when he came back from a 1-8 deficit in the opening game to score a 15-12, 15-8 victory.
“I feel great,” said the 2000 All England champion Xia, who played near-flawlessly during his 39-minute battle against Gade. “I’m very satisfied with the way I played today.”
“I think Peter was under pressure. He made more errors than he usually does. It allowed me to win points.”
The world number one was also dumped out of the women’s draw, with Denmark’s Camilla Martin eliminating Zhang Ning in a gritty three game battle.
The Sydney Olympic silver medallist overcame a lacklustre second game to score an 11-4, 0-11, 11-2 victory to earn a re-match against former Chinese national team player Pi Hongyan, now representing France, in the semi-finals.
Pi, who shocked Martin at the All England in the first round in February, pulled off a stunning victory by upsetting her former teammate and defending champion Zhou Mi 7-11, 11-6, 11-7.
Xie Xiangfang also upset world champion Gong Ruina 11-9, 13-12 in an all-Chinese match, while another former Chinese representative Wang Chen of Hong Kong defeated Jun Jae-Youn of South Korea 11-5, 11-5.
But it was Martin’s win which caught the eye.
“In the third game, she (Zhang) was a little bit tired, she made some easy mistakes and I was already far ahead of her. Maybe it was a bit difficult for her mentally to get back,” said Martin, 29.
“It’s been many years for me now playing the Chinese players, sometimes I win, mostly I lose, but still I think they have a lot of respect for me on court because of my wins against them.
“I almost always feel confident, if I’m in good shape and if I feel OK on court that I can beat them. I know that if I want to win a tournament, I have to beat at least three Chinese, so sometimes I’m not that confident.”
Men’s singles quarterfinals:
Lin Dan bt Chen Hong 8-15, 15-10, 17-14; Kenneth Jonassen bt Shon
Seung-Mo 15-3, 15-7; Taufik Hidayat bt Ng Wei 15-13, 17-15; Xia Xuanze
bt Peter Gade 15-12, 15-8
Mixed doubles quarterfinals:
Jens Eriksen/Mette Schjoldager bt Sang Yang/Zhang Yawen 11-5, 11-2;
Chen Qiqiu/Zhao Tingting bt Mathias Boe/Lotte Jonathans 11-6, 11-9;
Zhang Jun/Gao Ling bt Lars Paaske/Parnille Harder 11-2, 11-4;
Kim Dong-Moon/Ra Kyung-Min bt Jonas Rasmussen/Rikke Olsen 11-7, 11-8.—AFP
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