SINGAPORE, June 29: All eight men’s seeds sailed through the first and second rounds of the US$170,000 Singapore Open badminton tournament on Wednesday, with Chinese world number one Lin Dan leading the way.

But the women’s side of the draw was a much more eventful affair, with three of the eight seeds failing to make it past the first hurdle.

Women’s fourth seed Yao Jie of the Netherlands was the highest ranked player to bow out, losing to Chinese qualifier Jiang Yan Jiao, 11-9, 9-11, 3-11.

English seventh seed Tracy Hallam crashed out to Bulgaria’s Petya Nedeltcheva, 11-2, 3-11, 9-11 in a scrappy affair, while sixth seed Xu Huaiwen of Germany could not even take the court due to a wrist injury.

The beneficiary of the forfeit was veteran Mia Audina Tjiptawan, the former Indonesian badminton queen now representing the Netherlands.

The top seed in the woman’s draw, Xie Xingfang of China, had a much easier time, beating Thailand’s Salakjit Polsana 11-4, 11-5.

Fellow Chinese and defending champion Zhang Nin, the second seed, similarly breezed past Japan’s Eriko Hirose 11-3, 11-7.

Among the men in the first round, Lin was hardly stretched by India’s Abhinn Shyam Gupta, a former French Open winner, with the top seed winning 15-4, 15-6.

Second seed Kenneth Jonassen of Denmark also quickly dispatched his opponent, Thai qualifier Pumpat Sapkulchananart 15-3, 15-4.

Athens Olympics gold medallist and eighth seed Taufik Hidayat defeated South Korea’s Ahn Hyun-Suk 15-5, 15-11.

The only big-name player not to make it past the opening round was Thailand’s Boonsak Polsana, the world number 10 and a semi-finalist at Athens. Polsana lost 7-15, 1-15 to South Korea’s Lee Hyun-Il.

In the second round of men’s matches played late on Wednesday, Lin continued his good form, beating South Korea’s Jang Young-Soo 15-10, 15-6, while Jonassen was equally as impressive with a 15-10, 15-6 win over Mohammad Roslin Hashim.

Jonassen’s countryman and third seed Peter Gade had a tougher time, taking three sets to beat South Korea’s Shon Seung-Mo 14-17, 15-10, 15-6. Hidayat had another straight-sets win in the second round, beating fellow Indonesian Simon Santoso 15-5, 15-4.

The women’s second round and men’s third round matches will be played on Thursday.—AFP