Top seeds crash out of World Badminton Championships

Amit Kumar Das

Hyderabad, Aug 14 (PTI) On a day of upsets, top seeds
Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia and Zhou Mi of Hong Kong crashed out
of the World Badminton Championship after contrasting defeats
in men's and women's singles quarterfinals here in southern
Indian state of Andhra Pradesh Friday.

World number one Lee failed to live up to expectations
as he was sent packing by sixth seeded Indonesian Sony Dwi
Kuncoro 16-21 21-14 12-21 in a hard-fought match which turned
out to be biggest upset of the tournament so far.

"I just couldn't play well today. I had pulled things
back in the second game but I don't know what happened in the
third game," Lee said.

"Sony is no ordinary player, he has beaten me before and
he raised the bar today. I wasn't under any pressure nor I had
any problem with the conditions," he added.

Sony, on the other hand, said he was not afraid of
attacking whenever he got a chance, which paid dividends at
the end.

"I have beaten this guy before and I was not worried
before the match. In the first game, my strategy was to
attack. I knew that if I slowed down the game, he would beat
me. I played smart and whenever I got a chance I attacked.

"In the second game, I was a bit mentally down," he said.

In the women's singles, fifth seed Chinese Xingfang Xie
sent world number one Zhou Mi of Hong Kong packing with a
straight-game victory.

Xingfang, who won the World Championships in 2005 and
2006 besides a silver medal in Beijing Olympics, outplayed the
her top seed opponent 21-15 21-18 in a 47-minute match.

"It was a very close match even though the scoreline
might suggest otherwise. I was more patient then Zhou
especially in the second game. When we both were 18-all, I
held my nerves and didn't commit any mistake," said Xingfang
after the match.

The 2003 World Championship semifinalist, Zhou Mi had
retired from badminton in 2005. She did not play any
tournaments in 2006 and moved to Hong Kong from China before
re-emerging during in 2007.

Xingfang next faces eighth seed Hongyan Pi of France in
the semifinals tomorrow.

Hongyan reached the first semifinal of her career in
a world championship today after she beat Juliane Schenk 15-21
21-15 21-19 in another quarterfinal.

Asked what strategy she would take against Hongyan,
Xingfang said she would try to test her patience.

"I have played against her (Hongyan) many times and have
beaten her twice. She is a kind of player who believes in
longer game. So I am planning to test her patience tomorrow by
involving in more rallies," she said.

In men's singles, temperamental Indonesian Taufik Hidayat
advanced to the semifinals with a 21-19 21-19 victory over Jon
O Jorgensen of Denmark in a match marred by a controversial
line call.

Leading at 20-19 in the second game, Taufik smashed a
Jorgensen regulation stroke which according to the Dane had
landed outside but the line umpire ruled otherwise.

"I saw the shuttle drop outside but the line umpire felt
it was inside. I spoke to the chair umpire after the match. I
guess, this is something which I can't help. If I would have
got the point, may be things could have been different,"
Jorgensen said.

"It is a better sweat feeling for me because I know I had
my chances but I tried my best. He is more experienced and
played some great shots. I managed to give him a good fight
but surely he was the better one," he added.

The two players, however, didn't make any fuss out of it
and embraced each other smiling at the confusion and showing
tremendous sportsmanship.

Asked about the incident, Taufik said, "Well, I said
sorry to him because it wasn't in my hand. If the umpire says
it's outside I am ready to play but since he judged it was
inside, I win." PTI ATK
DDC
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