Top seeds march on, British hopes lifted
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China Daily, March 9, 2012
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China's Lin Dan in action against Ajay Jayaram of India in the first round of the All England Championships at The National Indoor. |
Title holder Lee Chong Wei survived a minor second-round wobble to claim a quarter-final place at the All England badminton championships on Thursday.
The Malaysian fought off two game points against talented Dane Hans-Kristian Vittinghus before running out a 23-21 21-18 winner.
Chong Wei, seeking a third All England crown in succession, found Vittinghus a handful. The Dane gave China's world champion Lin Dan a run for his money in last week's German Open.
Top seed Chong Wei said: "He went all out. He was pushing me a lot but I felt that was good because it would put me in the right mood for later in the tournament."
Second seed Lin had less trouble disposing of Malaysian Chong Wei Feng 21-13 21-16 and now meets old foe Taufik Hidayat of Indonesia who beat Chen Jin, seeded fifth, 21-19 21-19.
Organisers managed to wrap up proceedings by 2325 local time(GMT) to avoid a repeat of day one which over-ran to nearly 17 hours with England's Rajiv Ouseph ousting Denmark's fourth seed Peter Gade at 0220 local time.
On Thursday, the late finish looked to have caught up with Ouseph who went out to Malaysia's Daren Liew 21-15 21-10.
"I wanted to build on my performance against Peter Gade but I felt lethargic," Ouseph told reporters.
"Because I finished late last night it affected my game tonight. I had no speed in my legs and I made a lot of unforced errors."
Less Convincing
Home hopes were lifted later when mixed doubles duo Chris Adcock and Imogen Bankier edged past South Korea's Yoo Yeong-seong and Jang Ye-na 15-21 21-19 21-19.
The Britons had beaten world champion Chinese Zhang Nan and Zhao Yunlei with a brilliant display in the first round but by their own admission were less convincing on Thursday.
"Performance-wise if yesterday was 10 that was two or three at best," said Adcock. "But I suppose winning ugly is what the best players do."
The pair were joined in the last eight by compatriots Nathan Robertson and Jenny Wallwork who ousted fifth-seeded Taiwanese Chen Hung Ling and Cheng Wen Hsing 21-13 21-13.
"We were at our top level there," said a delighted Robertson. "We haven't beaten them before."
Malaysian men's doubles pair Koo Kien Keat and Tan Boon Heong suffered the rare sanction in badminton of a red card after a couple of warnings about holding up play for a drink and to wipe sweat.
The red card, unlike a black which is a sending off, handed a bonus point to Chinese opponents Hong Wei and Shen Ye who went from 20-20 in the deciding game to 21-20 and promptly clinched the match 12-21 21-17 22-20.
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