Olympic champion Taufik Hidayat failed to make the quarterfinals of the Macao Open badminton championship after losing to South Korea's Lee Hyun Ii on Thursday.

The Indonesian ace edged to a narrow win over Hong Kong's Wong Wai Hong at 17-21, 21-11, 21-19 in the morning but was stopped by Lee 21-17, 18-21, 12-21 in the afternoon.

Led by Lin Dan, four of China's five men's singles contestants made it through into the last eight.

Lin, China's best title hopeful, edged South Korea's Shon Sheung Mo 21-14, 20-22, 21-10 in the morning before stopping Japan's Shoji Sato 22-20, 21-9 in the afternoon.

Lin's compatriots Bao Chunlai, Chen Hong and Chen Jin also sailed into the quarterfinals.

Malaysia's Lee Chong Wei, Muhd Hafiz and Sairul Amar will challenge the Chinese men's singles legion in the quarterfinals.

In the women's singles competition, three of China's four players advanced into the quarterfinals.

The world number one Zhang Ning swept past Chinese Taipei's Pai Min Jie 21-7, 21-3, booking a berth in the quarterfinals along with her compatriots Lu Lan and Zhu Lin.

But Wang Lin was knocked out by Hong Kong's Yip Pui Yin 13-21, 21-11, 18-21. 

(Xinhua News Agency July 21, 2006)