Indonesias Taufik Hidayat hits a return to Taiwans Hsieh Yu-Hsing. - AFP Photo

Hidayat is the only Indonesian left in the singles after eighth-seeded Simon Santoso pulled out of the men's draw because of a back injury and Adrianti Firdasari lost 13-21, 21-15, 21-18 to South Korea's Kim Moon Hi in the women's draw.

China's contingent moved into the third round intact, with three men and four women still having a shot at the singles title.

“I'm lucky. The control was not good in the first set,” Hidayat said after Hsieh was two points away from winning the match.

Hidayat said he was a bit too confident going into the second round as he had won all four previous matches against Hsieh. But he claims he doesn't feel any added pressure in carrying his country's hopes.

“I don't feel pressure,” Hidayat said. “I have more motivation because I'm the only man in singles from Indonesia.”

Defending champion Lin Dan of China beat Henri Hurskainen of Sweden 21-13, 21-15. He could meet top-seeded Lee Chong Wei in the semifinals. The Malaysian cruised past compatriot Muhammad Hafiz Hashim 21-16, 21-16 in 26 minutes to earn his 18th straight win.

Lee is chasing his first world title and hopes to end the dominance of the third-seeded Lin, who is the only player to have won three straight world titles.

Lee will next face Rajiv Ouseph of England, who upset 11th-seeded Jan Jorgensen of Denmark 21-12, 25-23.

“He's pretty deadly when he's on the attack,” Ouseph said of Jorgensen.

“So I thought maybe if I try to play a bit more at the net, then I'd win. Kind of worked today.”

Lee won in straight sets in both of his matches against the 17th-ranked Ouseph.

“Obviously he wants to win this one because he has never won it before,” Ouseph said.

“There's a lot of pressure on him to win. So I think I can just be the underdog again. I mean, Jan has been there before so I don't see why I can't.”

Rajiv was referring to Jorgensen's victory over Lee in the China Super Series last year.

Tanongsak Saensomboonsuk of Thailand also pulled off an upset by edging 12th-seeded Kenichi Tago of Japan 22-20, 21-19.

Nguyen Tien Minh of Vietnam, European champion Peter Gade of Denmark and China's Chen Jin and Bao Chunlai also advanced.

Gade spent 74 minutes on court to grind out a 25-23, 7-21, 21-18 win over South Korea's Shon Wan Ho in the longest match of the day.

“We have a very good relationship,” Gade said of the French crowd.

“I didn't know when I was going to make use of that in this tournament, but it came quite early. It proved to be very important. And I used whatever momentum I could from the spectators.”

In women's singles, second-seeded Saina Nehwal of India was stretched but overcame Chen Hsiao Huan of Taiwan 20-22, 21-15, 21-8. Nehwal could face Wang Xin in the last four. The third-seeded Chinese ousted Charmaine Reid of Canada 21-15, 21-10.

The 20-year-old Nehwal is having a breakthrough season but she was not completely immune to pressure in her opening match after receiving a first-round bye, saying she felt “a little nervous.”

“Being the No. 2 seed for the first time in the world championships, it was a little bit tough to accept,” Nehwal said.

“But then I was ranked No. 1 in the Super Series, so that was OK.”

Nehwal failed to convert two set points in the opening set before jumping to a 7-0 lead in the last.

“I was leading and then I lost the first set,” she said.

“So it was quite disappointing. But second and third, it was quite good.”

Pi Hongyan of France, Yao Jie of the Netherlands, and Wang Shixian of China also joined Nehwal into the next round. - AP